When Novartis announced a bid to buy Chiron, the California bio-technology company, earlier this month, the Swiss drugmaker trod a well-worn path. Most 'big pharma' companies know that their future rests in either buying biotechnology companies or getting into bed with them. But as Chiron's directors rejected Novartis' first offer, analysts were asking whether a takeover would pep up Chiron, which has been hit by recent vaccine-manufacturing woes — or if it would just mark a release of cash to shareholders, and the end of a biotechnology success story dating back to 1981. "Pharma is struggling on its own," explains Karl Heinz Koch, an analyst who follows Novartis for the Swiss bank Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch. "It needs the more dynamic biotechnology industry to deliver growth and value to investors."
展开▼
