AstraZeneca Hopes Deals Add Up

AstraZeneca (AZN) has signed a string of licensing deals in recent weeks, the latest coming Wednesday and involving a small privately held biotechnology company with an experimental compound for Alzheimer's disease.

The agreement was AstraZeneca's fourth this month. Although these arrangements lack the giant price tags of mergers and acquisitions, they illustrate the reality faced by Big Pharma companies that aren't developing enough homegrown products to offset existing or impending generic competition for big-selling drugs.

AstraZeneca's deal-making also has given the company added exposure to an experimental cancer treatment, a medication for hardening of the arteries and a drug designed to combat dangerous infections.

"The deals are complementary to AstraZeneca's current portfolio," Alexandra Hauber of Bear Stearns wrote in a Dec. 23 research report. The latest transaction, which came after the research note, involves Targacept of Winston-Salem, N.C.

"We think there may be more to come," says Hauber, in a report that proved prescient. All of this activity "signals that AstraZeneca is not for sale." Hauber has an underperform rating on the stock. The analyst doesn't own shares, but her firm has had a noninvestment banking relationship with the company.

Several setbacks in the marketplace, the regulatory process and the laboratory have prompted some U.S. and foreign analysts to speculate that AstraZeneca could be vulnerable to a giant European drugmaker, such as GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The Anglo-Swedish company has pushed back its application to the Food and Drug Administration for new drugs for diabetes and strokes by one year until 2007.

Still, the company produced a third-quarter report in October that exceeded analysts' estimates, leading AstraZeneca to raise its full-year earnings target to a range of $2.85 to $2.90 a share from $2.75. That was the second favorable revision in 2005.

Seeking Versatility

In the case of Targacept, which filed to go public in 2004 and withdrew its application in March 2005, the AstraZeneca collaboration could be worth $300 million in upfront payments, research financing and milestone payments. In addition, Targacept will receive royalties linked to sales.