BioCentury
ARTICLE | Strategy

Sosei's Consolidation Play

Sosei plays consolidator in Japan biotech by acquiring Activus

June 28, 2010 7:00 AM UTC

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 Co. 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)...