PharmaTelevision - What’s Next For Nycomed?

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Video title: What’s Next For Nycomed?

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Following the acquisition of Altana in 2006, Nycomed grew from a small Scandinavian company into a global pharmaceutical company with the resources to perform its own R&D. Håkan Björklund, CEO, explains that in-licensing still remains essential for the company, only now they have the capability to move the focus away from late stage products to early stage opportunities as well. With a strong pipeline and no fears over the financial crisis, Mr Björklund hints that Nycomed’s future plans are very much hinged on whether its ownership structure remains the same or whether it is about to change.

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Merger with Altana, Nycomed growing into a global pharma company.

Fintan Walton:

Hello and welcome to PharmaVentures business review here in San Francisco. On this show I have Hokan Bjorklund, who is the CEO of Nycomed. Welcome to the show.

Hokan Bjorklund:

Thank you very much.

Fintan Walton:

Hokan, Nycomed is a company that has an interesting history, it's started as Norwegian company and it's now ended up with its headquarters in Switzerland and that's been a journey for that company, you've been part of that organization over the some of the more interesting years in recent times and particularly the merger with Altana and so forth. So how would you describe Nycomed today in relation to where it was say five-years ago?

Hokan Bjorklund:

Well you know if you look at the company five-years ago we were primarily a Scandinavian company with presence also in some small European markets and had been a lot sourced to Switzerland. And a pretty okay business also in the former Soviet Union, we were trying to expand into the major European market, but we were still a relatively regional player. The Altana acquisition changed everything it basically catapulted us into a different league it tripled our size, there was a full Pan-European presence both in the GP and the specialty sector. And it also gave us a very strong presence in some other key markets in Latin America, in Canada, in Australia. You can say we really become global and it also gave us significant, mean better opportunities to do R&D and to do in licensing because of the sheer size of the business.

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Hokan Bjorklund

Chief Executive Officer

Before joining Nycomed, Hokan Bjorklund, CEO, was Regional Director at Astra (today AstraZeneca). He was President of Astra Draco from 1991 to 1996. Hokan is a member of the Board of Directors of Atos Medical AB, Coloplast and Danisco A/S. He holds a PhD in neuroscience research from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.

Nycomed

With turnover growing by 3.0% to 3.5 billion in 2007, Nycomed is among the 25 largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and the 15th largest provider of over-the-counter medicines. Nycomed operates throughout Europe and in fast-growing markets such as Latin America, Russia/CIS and the Asia-Pacific region. It is present in about 50 markets with over 11,500 employees worldwide. Nycomed's largest country presence by revenue is Germany, followed by Russia/CIS, Canada and France. Nycomed is a privately owned pharmaceutical company that is active in a range of therapeutic areas. Its key products are aimed at gastroenterology, pain management, osteoporosis, respiratory diseases and tissue management. New products are sourced both from the company's own research and from business partners. Partnerships in all parts of the value chain play an essential role in Nycomed's business strategy. Their main shareholder Nordic Capital is a leading private equity firm. The other main shareholder CSFB Alternative Capital is one of the world's largest private equity firms.