Que "humorada" Humira llega a Pfizer con "Hospira"...

El 5 de agosto de 2012 John LaMattina comentaba en su columna en Forbes sobre la pobibilidad, no materializada, de que Humira hubiera sido un producto Pfizer y concluia:

"Things can always look better in hindsight, but Humira would have looked pretty good in today’s Pfizer portfolio." (Ver)

Más tarde que nunca lo que pudo haber sido...ahora es:

Pfizer is spending $17 billion to acquire Hospira, which calls itself the world's leading provider of injectable drugs and infusion technologies. 

So what the heck are they? 

Hospira's injectable pharmaceuticals are generic drugs used for anesthesia, infections, cancer and other indications. 

Adalimumab

They differ from what are known as biosimilars—generic versions of biologic drugs, made from living cells (biologic drugs include medicines like Humira, for rheumatoid arthritis, and Avastin, for cancer). While there are biosimilars on the market outside the U.S., the pathway to market is still being worked out here. Hospira makes biosimilars as well.

The company's injectable and infused pharmaceuticals business includes about 200 generic drugs, like the antibacterials azithromycin and ceftazidime, and the anticoagulant heparin sodium. 

"The reason we think it's attractive is simply the technological capability and the experience to be able to develop and manufacture high-quality reliable medicines for a whole range of conditions [including antibiotics to cytotoxic drugs and others] is something really tough to do, and to do well," John Young, head of Pfizer's established products business, said on a conference call with reporters Thursday. Pfizer's existing portfolio of injectables includes the antibiotic Zyvox, chemotherapy docetaxel and birth control shot Depo-Provera. 

Hospira has also been in the news in recent years as the only U.S. maker of drugs used in lethal injection. (The company said in 2011 it would stop making the anesthetic, sodium thiopental, because it didn't have U.S. manufacturing capabilities for it, and it had run into opposition in Italy.) (Más)

Ver también:

Ironias de la muerte... (cont.)