Astex Gets Bought

So Astex, one of the pioneers in fragment-based drug discovery, has been bought by Otsuka for their oncology portfolio. You don't hear people asking "What has all this fragment stuff accomplished?" as much as you used to, but here's another answer: an $886 million dollar buyout. The president of Otsuka says that they're going to keep Astex's research the way it is: "Astex's unique fragment-based drug discovery technology and clinical oncology research and development capabilities, born out of the passion of its researchers, exemplify our corporate mottos and belief in "Sozosei (Creativity) and Jissho (Proof through Execution). I would like Otsuka Pharmaceutical to continue to respect Astex's uniqueness and leverage it to bring further growth for Otsuka Pharmaceutical." And the Japanese companies have, for the most part, been good at leaving things alone when they say they will. In the case of Astex's unusual set of skills, this seems like a smart move.
Source: In the Pipeline - Category: Chemists Tags: Business and Markets Source Type: blogs