Nycomed

Nycomed SCA SICAR
legal form	Société à responsabilité limitée
founding	1874
resolution	2011
Reason for dissolution	Takeover by Takeda
Seat	Opfikon , Switzerland
management	Håkan Björklund ( CEO )
Number of employees	12,506 (December 31, 2010)
sales	3.171 billion euros (2010)
Branch	Pharmaceutical Industry

The Nycomed Group was a Luxembourg pharmaceutical company . The German pharmaceutical company Altana Pharma AG , which Nycomed had bought from Altana AG , had been part of the group since 2007 . In the course of the takeover, the operational headquarters were relocated to Opfikon, Switzerland. In 2011, the company was taken over by Takeda for 9.6 billion euros .

history

The company was founded in Norway in 1874 as Nyegaard & Co. to resell imported pharmaceuticals. It was not until 1913 that Nyegaard & Co. began producing its own pharmaceutical products and was successful in the field of X-ray contrast media.

From 1985 there were several changes of ownership, mergers and company divestments. Initially, Nyegaard & Co. was taken over by the Hafslund AS energy group and renamed Nycomed AS on January 1, 1986. In the period that followed, the Hafslund Group changed its name to Hafslund Nycomed AS. Four years later, Nycomed AS was split into the two companies Nycomed Pharma AS and Nycomed AS, which was responsible for the distribution of the contrast media.

Finally, the successor company Nycomed ASA was merged with Amersham International in 1997, as Hafslund ASA would concentrate entirely on energy generation in the future. Two years later, Nycomed Amersham spun off its pharmaceutical activities into the new company Nycomed Pharma Holding AS, which was completely taken over by the financial investor Nordic Capital in 2001 . Nyco Holdings ApS was founded in the course of reselling the company to other financial investors . In the meantime Roskilde had become the headquarters of the group.

The 2005 annual report describes that Nycomed A / S, as the parent company, has taken over all shares in Nyco Holdings ApS, the previous parent company. Nycomed SCA SICAR, registered in Luxembourg, was founded at the end of November 2006 as the new parent company of the Nycomed Group.

In December 2006, Nycomed acquired the pharmaceuticals division of the then DAX-listed Altana for around EUR 4.6 billion. The acquisition was largely financed with outside capital. In the course of this merger, around 800 jobs were cut at the Konstanz headquarters of the former Altana Pharma AG and research activities almost stopped, as Nycomed increasingly wanted to focus on late development projects and switched its business model to in-licensing of pharmaceutical products.

On February 21, 2008, the subsidiary Nycomed US Inc. acquired Bradley Pharmaceuticals, a manufacturer of dermatology products. In September 2009, Nycomed entered into a bidding competition with Abbott Laboratories from the USA for the pharmaceuticals division of the Belgian chemical and pharmaceutical company Solvay . Nycomed's offer of 4 to 4.5 billion euros was ultimately exceeded by Abbott.

In 2011, the company was taken over by Takeda for 9.6 billion euros .

Business figures

The total turnover of the group in 2008 amounted to a total of 3.3 billion euros. Of this, 737 million euros went to contract manufacturing and 337 million euros to license fees from US partner companies.

Products

Nycomed sold and developed products in the areas of gastroenterology , respiratory diseases, cardiology, osteoporosis and pain. For the most part, the company relied on the in-licensing of finished drugs and the purchase of potential active ingredients that are to be further developed in the company and ultimately brought to approval.

The main sales driver was the active ingredient pantoprazole , which is sold under the names Pantozol , Pantoloc , Controloc , Zurcale , Rifun and Protonix , among others . Pantoprazole is an active ingredient from the field of proton pump inhibitors , which are used in gastroenterology.

Pantoprazole was the top-selling product. As a result of the expiry of patent protection in 2009, declining sales are to be expected in the future. With a turnover of 112 million euros, the calcium preparation CalciChew is the product with the second highest turnover. In the respiratory diseases segment, Alvesco is the most successful product with sales of EUR 48 million. In 2007, Altana Pharma AG certified Alvesco 's potential to become a blockbuster with sales of over one billion euros. Alvesco has not even come close to achieving these sales to this day. The cooperation with Sanofi-Aventis ended in 2007. In January 2008, the US pharmaceutical company Sepracor acquired the marketing rights to the active ingredient ciclesonide (including Alvesco and the Omnaris nasal spray ) for an advance payment of EUR 150 million and future license fees.

Nycomed's hope was the - now approved - active ingredient roflumilast , which was supposed to expand the airway portfolio . After setbacks in development, the joint development partnership with Pfizer was terminated in 2005. The then Altana Pharma AG withdrew an application for approval in the EU in 2005.

Based on new positive study results, a further application for approval was submitted in May 2009. The marketing rights for Daxas were sold in August 2009 to the US pharmaceutical company Forest Laboratories. In return, Nycomed received an initial payment of 100 million US dollars and has the prospect of milestone payments and royalties on future sales.

Other products to be mentioned are Ebrantil , Tachosil , Calcichew , Vita-Buerlecithin , Amol , Riopan and Xefo . The best-known products include Sanostol , Faktu and Calcimagon .

criticism

Nycomed was criticized for offering the medical profession an incentive through numerous observations of use to prescribe its main source of sales pantoprazole to the detriment of health insurance. The IQWiG certifies potential savings of 105 million euros for the German health care system if cheaper generics with the active ingredient omeprazole were prescribed instead of expensive pantoprazole .

The active ingredient pantoprazole is an analogue preparation whose therapeutic added value compared to the cheaper, patent-free active ingredient omeprazole is controversial. The Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) therefore classified the patented pantoprazole in the fixed price group of proton pump inhibitors.

In the surveys of the Association of employed academics and executives of the chemical industry (VAA), the German branch of Nycomed received an average grade of 3.52 for corporate strategy, culture and working conditions. This put Nycomed at the bottom of the ranking.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} http://www.tpi.takeda.com/~/media/countries/www_nycomed_com/files/reports/nycomed_annualreport_2010.pdf
2. ^ ^{A b} Takeda Germany: Takeda takes over Nycomed , press release, May 19, 2011.
3. ↑ ^{a b} NZZ Online : Zürcher Nycomed is worth almost ten billion euros to the Japanese. , May 19, 2011.
4. ^ Südkurier: At Nycomed / Altana every second digit is deleted , March 22, 2007.
5. ↑ Südkurier: "Otherwise we'll hit the wall" , March 22, 2007.
6. ↑ Handelsblatt: Abbott buys pharmaceuticals division from Solvay , September 28, 2009.
7. ↑ Handelsblatt: Altana expects marketing for Alvesco in the EU to begin in early 2005 , December 8, 2004.
8. ↑ Nycomed: Sepracor takes over distribution of Ciclesonide for Nycomed in the USA , press release of January 28, 2008
9. ↑ Berliner Morgenpost: Second pillar necessary , July 2, 2005.
10. ↑ Handelsblatt: Altana break in after withdrawal of Daxas application , November 15, 2005.
11. ↑ Nycomed: Nycomed and Forest Laboratories enter into partnership for US commercialization of Daxas® in COPD ; Press release from August 10, 2009.
12. ↑ Markus Grill: Pharma Industry - Die Schein -forschung stern.de, issue 05/2007, February 2007
13. ↑ For a discussion of sham innovations and step innovation, see the article analog preparation
14. ↑ GEK-Arzneimittel-Report 2008
15. ↑ Manager Magazin: VAA survey: All rankings at a glance , May 26, 2009.