Bayer-Schering to become “big pharma”

The new Bayer-Schering pharmaceutical company, soon to be formed following the successful merger of Bayer and Schering AG, will move into the “big pharma” category, according to a market analyst.

A new report from Datamonitor has said that Bayer-Schering will leave the other four largest “mid pharma” companies – Boehringer Ingelheim, Schering-Plough, Novo Nordisk and Merck KGaA – “trailing in their wake”. Previously, both Bayer and Schering AG were among these companies in what was known as mid pharma’s “big six”.

The Datamonitor report also said that mid pharma sector growth is expected to outstrip big pharma growth between 2005 and 2010, although this might slow towards the end of the decade.

Brett Scottorn, a market analyst for Datamonitor, stated: “[It] should be noted that these forecasts only utilise currently marketed products and pipeline products, for the simple fact that it is impossible to predict what licensing agreements will be struck going forward.”

“Compared to big pharma, mid pharma companies tend to have a narrower focus in a particular dimension- often in terms of therapy or geography,” he said.

The Datamonitor report showed that only the big six are global companies with broad therapeutic strategies, while smaller companies, like Lundbeck or Schwarz, focus on central nervous system or cardiovascular drugs.

One mid pharma company, Organon, recently said it was large enough to survive on its own. Its parent company, Akzo Nobel, intends to divest Organon and list it publicly next year.

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