Cerebrus: Building on diesase models
OXFORD - Pharmaceutical industry consolidation is having a major influence on the emergence of Cerebrus Ltd., Britain's first integrated neuroscience company. The founding scientists came out of Wyeth Laboratories' British labs when Wyeth acquired Lederle Laboratories in 1995 and decided to repatriate all its central nervous system (CNS) activities to the U.S. This nucleus has been joined by scientists from Astra, after it closed its stroke unit at the Institute of Neurology in London, and from Glaxo Wellcome, SmithKline Beecham and Novo Nordisk.
"Pharmaceutical industry consolidation is doing two things," said CEO Andrew Smith, formerly a SmithKline Beecham executive. "First, it makes people realize that security is a relative thing even in the big pharmaceutical companies; and second, it has enabled us to recruit some very good people who otherwise would not have been looking."...