Japanese biotech and pharma companies, including Sosei
Group Corp., have tended to build their businesses by acquiring foreign
assets. Sosei's acquisition of Activus Pharma Ltd., a Japanese nanoparticle-based
formulation company, breaks the mold. The move reaffirms Sosei's reprofiling
strategy and may throw light on how investors view consolidation within the
Japanese biotech sector.
Sosei's business model is to find new indications for old drugs.
In 2005, it acquired U.K. reprofiler Arakis Ltd., which provided the technology
that now underpins glycopyrronium bromide (NVA237), an inhaled muscarinic
receptor antagonist being co-developed in collaboration with Vectura
Group plc. Novartis
AG has rights to NVA237 from Vectura and Sosei under a 2005 deal
(see BioCentury, April 18, & July 25, 2005).