This may become the year of the hostile takeover. First it was Astellas going after Osi Pharmaceuticals. Now Sanofi-Aventis has gone hostile in its pursuit of Genzyme--but it has yet to sweeten its offer. After Genzyme rejected its unsolicited $18.5 billion offer, the French pharmaceutical went hostile in early October but kept to its original offer—one that is likely to be rejected again.

Johnson and Johnson sealed its $2.4 billion bid for Dutch vaccine maker Crucell with its management, but much to the chagrin of several major shareholders who expected a higher offer for the company. [See story] J&J already owns close to 18 percent of the company.

Hungarian specialty pharmaceutical Richter acquired PregLem in a deal valued at $463 million and will set it up as its R&D arm for women’s reproductive health. Investors in the Swiss company will get $156 million upfront and up to $307 million based on certain specific development milestones. PregLem’s current executive team will continue to manage the company which will become a research and development center of an enlarged and growing women’s health business for the Richter Group, with a core focus on the development of early stage compounds.

PregLem currently has five products in clinical development and its lead product, PGL4001 Esmya, completed late stage clinical trials in June 2010 for the treatment of uterine myoma.

InterMune sold worldwide development and commercialization rights to danoprevir to its development partner Roche for $175 million in cash. The partners also ended their HCV research collaboration agreement entered into in 2005. InterMune will put all its resources into its lead product pirfenidone, its investigational treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

“After conducting a careful review of our strategy and financial position, we have decided to divest our rights to danoprevir to Roche, says Dan Welch, chairman and CEO of InterMune. “We are now in a very strong financial position that provides us with the resources and flexibility to maximize the value of pirfenidone, our largest and nearest-term value creation opportunity.”

Watson Pharmaceuticals is expanding its presence in Brazil and Mexico with a $30 million investment in privately held Brazilian pharmaceutical company Moksha8. The generic pharma joined existing investors TPG Biotechnology and Montreux Equity Partners in a $61 million financing round. Watson also committed to invest an additional $20 million, contingent upon Moksha8 executing additional third-party product acquisitions over the next year.

In addition to its minority stake in Moksha8, the companies entered into a partnership where Watson will manufacture and supply select products to Moksha8, which will have exclusive rights to market, sell and distribute these products in Brazil and Mexico.
The companies have initially identified approximately one dozen product candidates, with the opportunity to expand the commercialization and marketing agreement to include additional products in the future. Watson will continue to own all marketing authorizations, and Moksha8 will be responsible for sales, marketing and commercialization expenses. Moksha8 also has partnership agreements with Roche, Pfizer, and BioCryst in Brazil and Mexico.

Convergence Pharmaceuticals officially launched having raised $35.4 million in series A financing from a syndicate of leading European and U.S. life science investors. The British company, focused on the development of novel and high value analgesic medicines, has acquired clinical assets from GlaxoSmithKline. Drugs in its pipeline target the major points of convergence in chronic pain signaling through modulation of specific ion-channels.