BioCentury
ARTICLE | Strategy

The sum greater than the whole

February 27, 2006 8:00 AM UTC

It isn't uncommon for a company to have enough cash to develop a lead product but not enough to shepherd the rest of its pipeline. The danger is that the cash-strapped entity ends up being acquired by a company that keeps the lead and shuts down everything else. To avoid that fate, IDEA AG last week opted to split itself into two parts.

Under a deal with its most recent and largest investor, IDEA (Munich, Germany) will offload its Transfersome drug delivery platform in order to focus on its Phase III compound for pain. The rest of the company will be put into TDT, a subsidiary of private equity firm Celtic Pharmaceutical Holding LP (Hamilton, Bermuda)...