Stockwatch. Eyeballs or optical delusion?
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
The recent acquisition of the shares of Alcon that Novartis didn’t own for about $13 billion might have reinforced investors’ appetite for eye care-related pharmaceuticals (scripintelligence.com, 15 Dec 2010). However, Novartis’ consolidation of Alcon appeared more of a move to wholly own a separate business unit complete with sales force, a dominant position in soup-to-nuts eye care and sales of $6.5bn, than a focus on a particular new drug. On the other hand, Sanofi’s acquisition of the private company Fovea Pharmaceuticals SA (scripintelligence.com, 1 Oct 2009) marked a rare big pharmaceutical foray for an ophthalmology pipeline.
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