Not surprisingly, Wei Kang received a call from Andre again.

"Dear Wei, it's like this. Last time I ordered a batch of arc1 protein samples, and they were unanimously approved by Pfizer's team of scientists. Everyone is very optimistic about this technology and want to apply it to more biopharmaceutical applications.

field."

"So on behalf of the company, I want to talk to you about the patent licensing fee."

Andre didn't hide it, but directly explained his intention. He had already figured out Wei Kang's general temperament and knew that the other party had a relatively straightforward personality. Only by being sincere could he continue to cooperate.

"No problem, our cooperation has always been very pleasant. I will give you a preferential price from an old friend." Wei Kang replied with a smile.

Speaking of discount prices, Andre had an idea and suddenly remembered something.

This Mr. Wei seems to have a unique hobby and likes to collect discarded prescriptions. In the last negotiation for anti-cancer drugs, he also asked pharmaceutical companies to provide discarded prescriptions in order to be eligible to bid.

From this point of view, we might as well give it what it likes and see if we can negotiate a lower price.

Andre was a little confused: "Dear Wei, the company has recently made a series of strategic adjustments to focus on the research and development of innovative drugs and vaccines. It has been engaged in mergers and acquisitions in the past six months, and its cash flow has been consumed a lot."

"Especially after spending US$11.6 billion to acquire the pharmaceutical company Biohaven last month, my account is already stretched thin and I can't get out much money. However, our Pfizer family has a big business and has many companies and pipelines. If you are interested,

We can exchange part of the divested business."

"In short, we hope to minimize cash payments, and it is best to pay patent licensing fees in other ways."

"Oh," Wei Kang suddenly became interested and asked, "What strategic adjustments have you made? What businesses are you going to divest and sell?"

Andre suddenly spoke eloquently: "One of the company's current goals is to embrace digitalization. It has recently announced a digital upgrade plan to shift more medical staff to online interactions, open up Internet channels, and enhance digital development strategies. This is clear to you.

You have always done a good job and we want to learn from you."

“We will also focus on oncology, rare diseases, immunity and inflammation, vaccines and other fields. We have acquired four companies in these fields and obtained Lyme disease vaccines, blockbuster migraine drugs on the market, and respiratory antivirals.

drugs, as well as immune and inflammatory diseases and many other pipelines under development.”

"So next, we will definitely sell part of the business to collect funds to maintain a balance of payments."

"The businesses that have been split up so far, including the consumer health care business and the generic drug business, have been established into joint ventures, which only hold shares. This year, we will completely sell all our shares and withdraw from these two businesses, if Sanqing is also interested.

, everything is easy to talk about.”

Andre continued calmly: "In addition, all acquired companies will strip off non-performing assets and sell them, including failed R&D projects, abandoned prescriptions, expired patents, delisted drugs, and money-losing drugs.

Business, etc.”

"As far as I know, in addition to Pfizer, other multinational pharmaceutical companies are also adjusting their strategic layout and divesting non-performing assets to alleviate performance pressure."

"For example, Sanofi has been hit hard recently and is preparing to sell shares in its API companies. Merck is also selling its women's health business, and GSK plans to divest its consumer healthcare business. AstraZeneca has also sold many areas.

of blockbuster drugs.”

Andre has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for many years and is well aware of the trends of major pharmaceutical companies and constantly talks about the latest trends.

Weikang listened with rapt attention and was quite moved. Sanqing now has an annual revenue of 40 billion. It can be said that it has a lot of money. Like other pharmaceutical companies, it can obtain new performance growth points through mergers and acquisitions.

Especially in recent years, competition among pharmaceutical companies has become increasingly fierce. Faced with pressure from drug price cuts, centralized procurement, and patent expirations, many multinational pharmaceutical companies are conducting large sales to survive.

Overcome difficulties and find new business breakthroughs.

Although Sanqing currently has many blockbuster drugs and top-notch drugs, it still lacks in the layout of the entire drug production line. This is also a disadvantage of its short rise, and it cannot compare with those pharmaceutical companies that have been around for hundreds of years.

Giants like Pfizer have hundreds of drugs under research and development every year, and dozens of drugs have failed or been abandoned. After so many years of accumulation, there are probably tens of thousands of prescriptions collecting dust in the warehouse.

Wei Kang's heart became hot when he thought about it, but it was a pity that these prescriptions did not belong to him and could not be used as waste. They could only be stored in the ballast bilge. He couldn't help but secretly sigh.

At this moment, the words 'failed R&D project', 'abandoned prescription', and 'spin off for sale' suddenly floated into my ears.

He was startled for a moment, then his eyes lit up, and he couldn't help but his heart beating rapidly.

Great, why didn't he think of it?

If the discarded prescriptions are not enough, you can buy them from others.

Usually when pharmaceutical companies perform well, they may not be willing to sell them, but since they have reorganized their businesses and sold off non-performing assets, they are naturally willing to sell them at low prices in exchange for some cash.

Of course, it cannot be too obvious and can be packaged and acquired together with some other cheap assets.

Each of these multinational pharmaceutical companies are pure-blooded capitalists who are absolutely willing to sell and squeeze out every last drop of profit.

After all, all Weikang needs are discarded prescriptions that have passed the first phase of clinical trials.

Which of the larger pharmaceutical companies doesn't have double-digit discarded prescriptions piled in its warehouse?

If you sell them all, you can probably sell them for millions of dollars. For many pharmaceutical companies, this is a windfall, and they can recover some losses.

Especially for some pharmaceutical companies that are about to go bankrupt, this money is a life-saving straw, and it can last for a while, and maybe they can come back to life.

Wei Kang was very excited, but his face remained calm. He nodded and agreed: "Yes, after these adjustments, Pfizer will surely be able to gain new opportunities and reach new heights in the field of innovative drugs."

"I'm very interested in what you said. You also know that Sanqing's current foundation is still very shallow, and it needs to acquire more other businesses. Pfizer's target areas do not overlap with Sanqing's. The two sides have great differences.

There is a space where we can cooperate with each other.”

Among the several areas Pfizer focuses on, oncology is definitely its cooperation with Sanqing’s anti-cancer drugs.

The list of rare diseases is too big. There are 3,000 diseases. It is not enough to constitute a threat.

As for the vaccine business, anti-virus and immune inflammation, Sanqing has not entered these markets at all, and there is no competition at all.

Seeing that Wei Kang's response was much more enthusiastic, Andre burst into laughter.

While he was in a happy mood, he also spoke out some of his inner thoughts.

"Dear Wei, you are always so smart. The pharmaceutical market is huge, and even a small piece of it is very profitable. We can complement each other in many ways, and we can eat this piece of cake together."

"Actually, I don't agree with behaviors like the Broad Institute. Being too greedy will only kill the goose and take the egg, ruining the prospects of gene patents. I am more optimistic about the cooperation with Sanqing. You have stronger technology, but are more tolerant and have a longer term view."

.”

"With the arc1 protein patent, Sanqing has become invincible in the field of gene editing. What you need are friends, the more the better, so that you can get a steady stream of profits. What do you think?"

Wei Kang was very impressed. Andre was much smarter than he thought, and it was obvious that his stance was liberal, not conservative.

"I can win over this person and use him to my advantage, but I don't know if there are many people like him in the West." He thought to himself.

The two sides had a great conversation and quickly reached a preliminary agreement.

In a few days, Andre will come with a team to formally sign the patent licensing contract.

At the same time, Weicome is also very interested in the non-performing assets that Pfizer wants to sell off.

What was divested this time were the non-performing assets of the acquired companies, so it didn’t hurt at all to sell them.

Pfizer only cares about those companies' blockbuster drugs and their research and development capabilities in this field. It doesn't care about other extraneous things at all.

Weikang quickly negotiated a very cheap price.

Pfizer is indeed a big player in mergers and acquisitions. It spends billions of dollars in the pharmaceutical industry every year and is a super financier who keeps buying and buying. It has a lot of inventory. It has acquired no less than 10 companies in the past two years alone.

This time, we sold the non-performing assets of 8 acquired companies in one go, including but not limited to all abandoned prescriptions, delisted drugs, drugs with no development prospects, and several patents that were not selling well and were about to expire.

In order to get a discount on patent licensing fees, Andre even persuaded the CEO to include some abandoned prescriptions from Pfizer.

Of course, these are relatively old stocks that have been gathering dust on laboratory shelves for at least five or six years, so it’s not a big deal to give them away for free.

Since it was a big sale, the price was very affordable, about US$20 million.

Pfizer does not plan to pay cash, and all of it will be converted into the first batch of patent licensing fees.

Weicome is equivalent to reducing some patent fees, and then getting a lot of abandoned prescriptions and drugs with no future.

Pfizer paid some ballast waste in exchange for a very favorable discount and a reduction in patent licensing fees.

It was all bartering and no cash was spent.

Both parties were very happy and felt that they had taken a huge advantage.

After this incident, Wei Kang tasted the benefits and couldn't help but start thinking about other multinational pharmaceutical companies.

Just as Andre said, Sanofi, AstraZeneca, Merck, Novartis, etc., these pharmaceutical companies are slimming down and reorganizing, shedding non-performing assets. He can do the same and use patent licensing fees in exchange for discarded prescriptions.

The news of the deal between Pfizer and Sanqing quickly spread throughout the industry.

******

The capital of Sakura Country, Dakyo.

In a high-rise building in the city center, Eisai Pharmaceutical CEO Okada Murao was sighing, worried about the company's plummeting performance.

Eisai Pharmaceutical is one of the five largest pharmaceutical giants in Sakura Country, with annual sales reaching US$6 billion, ranking among the top 50 pharmaceutical giants in the world.

This is a typical pharmaceutical company that relies on explosive products to make a fortune quickly. It once ranked among the top 20 in the world. However, as time has passed, Eisai's position in the global pharmaceutical market has been greatly reduced.

The company relied on two blockbuster products, donepezil and rabeprazole, and reached cooperation with Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson respectively. Thanks to the efforts of the two giants, it achieved huge revenue of billions of dollars in just a few years.

However, innovative drugs have always been a high-risk bet. If you want to achieve longevity in the innovative drug industry, you must solve the patent cliff problem.

The patent cliff refers to the fact that after the patent expires, a large number of cheap generic drugs emerge to seize the market, causing the sales of the original drugs to plummet like falling off a cliff.

Eisai can successfully create two major hit products, but this does not mean that its research and development capabilities can be on par with multinational giants.

On the contrary, Eisai, which successfully went global with its me-too improved drugs, has a huge gap in innovation capabilities with Western pharmaceutical giants.

When the company was first prosperous, it did not plan ahead and carry out a large number of mergers and acquisitions in a timely manner to alleviate the crisis in the R&D pipeline. As a result, the company failed to transform and faced a huge crisis.
To be continued...