Philly (Juniata Park) pharma firm bought out for $800 million

[billy ross]

URL Pharma’s $800 million deal is all about gout

Wow. I didn't know that there was that kind of wealth in Juniata Park.

"Renamed URL Pharma Inc. in 2008, the company is probably unfamiliar to anyone who doesn’t have gout or doesn’t treat some of the more than eight million Americans diagnosed with the painful disease. That’s because its brand-name Colcrys drug costs far more today than the 9 cents per dose that the longtime remedy, called colchicine, once did.

Call it an unintended consequence of a program by the Food and Drug Administration to encourage clinical trials of medicines that predated federal regulation for safety and effectiveness. URL Pharma was the only drug company to seek approval for colchicine under the Unapproved Drug Initiative.

After its Colcrys received the FDA’s OK in 2009 and three years of market exclusivity, URL Pharma raised the price to about $5 per pill, causing a furor in the medical community as the company’s revenue and profit swelled.

Such success attracted Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Japan’s largest drug company, which agreed to buy URL Pharma this week for $800 million, with more possible, based on certain goals.

Takeda, whose U.S. base is in Deerfield, Ill., clearly wanted URL Pharma for Colcrys, which generated net sales of more than $430 million in 2011. Takeda has its own gout medicine, called Uloric, with sales of $106 million for the 12 months ended March 31, 2011."

It sounds like the Japanese paid a tremendous amount of money for one drug. Will this family be able to continue pulling the rabbit out of the hat? I'm sure there are pleny of other orphan drugs which need to have their status formalized by the FDA.

Why haven't I heard more about this? It's a crazy story, with big $$ attached to it. Talk about found money.



Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/columni...#ixzz1s8lxCm8G
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[Cya]

[QUOTE]

URL Pharma’s $800 million deal is all about gout

Wow. I didn't know that there was that kind of wealth in Juniata Park.

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Read more: URL Pharma’s $800 million deal is all about gout

I did! URL/Mutual has been there forever. Quietly existing in the neighborhood employing hundreds of well paid employees.
I hope the sale doesn't mean the new company will be moving operations out of the area. Their current building is deceivingly large. Plus, they own a huge vacant 5+story brick warehouse across the street -which looks like a pretty cool building if it could be rehabbed into something.

[billy ross]

I did! URL/Mutual has been there forever. Quietly existing in the neighborhood employing hundreds of well paid employees.
I hope the sale doesn't mean the new company will be moving operations out of the area. Their current building is deceivingly large. Plus, they own a huge vacant 5+story brick warehouse across the street -which looks like a pretty cool building if it could be rehabbed into something.

That location (on Orthodox Street) is Frankford, as far as I am concerned. Yes, I was aware of that company, but I hadn't known its name - I guess I should have looked up the address and not trusted some most likely suburban-dwelling Inquirer reporter's estimation of the boundaries of Juniata Park. A guy I knew from East Falls worked for them, and he was sufficiently impressed by the company that I looked for it in my travels one day.

What blows me away about this story is that here was a firm that did generics and they branched out and secured a patent on a drug that was long in the public domain, and they turned that patent into a gigunda jackpot. What's going to happen to the management now? Will they work for the Japanese? Will they start a new pharma firm?

It never ceases to amaze me how many ways there are to strike it rich and how people find all of these creative ways to turn junk into wealth.

[ruggerkev]

The Japanese Pharma companies tend to leave their acquisitions alone.

[thesomersteam]

Another potential takeover candidate is Lannett (LCI) - trading at $4.00 a share, based in Philadelphia, main office on State Rd I believe - generic drug company.