Specialty plays

Rather than sticking to its bread-and-butter disease areas of immunology, neurology and oncology, Biogen Idec Inc. has decided the best way to grow its pipeline is to look for external opportunities in niche markets. In Syntonix Pharmaceuticals Inc., the company thinks it may have found a hemophilia program that could shift the treatment paradigm in a disease settling where a targeted sales force would suffice.

BIIB (Cambridge, Mass.) is acquiring Syntonix (Waltham, Mass.) for $40 million in cash plus up to $80 million in milestones (see BioCentury, Jan. 8). ...