Piramal buys Bayer's molecular imaging assets

The cash-rich Piramal Group has begun making serious investments in pharmaceutical research and development (R&D). Piramal Healthcare Ltd (PHL) today announced an agreement to acquire worldwide rights to the molecular imaging research and development portfolio of Bayer Pharma AG. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed, but the move is significant, as the company would get rights to florbetaben that may help detect signs of Alzheimer’s disease.

Since the Rs 17,000-crore sellout of its domestic formulation business to US drug maker Abbott in September 2010, Piramal Healthcare has been on an investment spree across verticals —financial services, defence, telecom, and now, pharma R&D.

Earlier this year, Piramal Healthcare picked up an additional 5.5 per cent in telecom service provider Vodafone India for $618 million (Rs 3,151 crore, according to the current forex rate), raising its total stake in the telco to 11 per cent. Last August, it had bought the initial 5.5 per cent for $640 million (roughly Rs 3,260 crore).

Last year, it had also set up a financial services subsidiary, Piramal Finance, for the purpose of housing two non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) with a combined corpus of Rs 1,000 crore as well as a private equity venture. Again in 2011, the group floated a new company, Piramal Systems and Technologies (PST), to make a foray into the defence security space. More recently, earlier this month, the group's real estate arm, Piramal Realty, bought Hindustan Unilever's Gulita property in Mumbai for Rs 452.5 crore.

The Piramal Group, spanning healthcare, glass, real estate and financial service, clocked a turnover of Rs 5,000 crore in 2010-11.

On the latest R&D initiative, the company said Piramal Healthcare's newly created subsidiary, Piramal Imaging SA, had acquired the portfolio, including rights to florbetaben, a positron emission tomography (PET) tracer. Florbetaben, which is in the final stages of its Phase-III clinical trials, helps detect beta-amyloid plaque deposition in the brain, an indication of probable Alzheimer's disease.

Ajay Piramal, the Piramal Group chairman, said, “We plan to build a promising portfolio in the pharma space, including our newly acquired molecular imaging assets, which will help us create a global branded pharma business.”

The company would fund the acquisition through internal accruals, he said.

Piramal estimates that the new class of PET imaging agents for Alzheimer's has a global market potential of up to $1.5 billion. Piramal Imaging has plans to set up a dedicated global commercial team for florbetaben.

“Core members of Bayer’s research and development team working on the portfolio will be joining Piramal Imaging, which will carry forward the development of florbetaben and take it through regulatory approval processes worldwide. Piramal is planning to file for regulatory approvals in 2012,” a company statement said.

As per the agreement, Piramal will have the intellectual property (including patents, trademarks and know-how), worldwide development, marketing and distribution rights of the lead compound florbetaben as well as other clinical and pre-clinical assets of Bayer’s molecular imaging business.

The field of molecular imaging is not very competitive yet, and US companies Eli Lilly, GE Healthcare and Bayer play in the segment. "Only Eli Lilly has a competitive product in Alzheimer's, but that too was very recently launched," said Swati Piramal, director, PHL.