Organon ‘will be strong enough to survive alone’

Organon, the pharmaceutical division of the Dutch chemicals manufacturer Akzo Nobel, will be strong enough to survive on its own when it is demerged into a public company, according to an Akzo Nobel board member.

Speculation over if and when Organon will be listed on the stock exchange has been rife for months, as well as questions over it remaining an independent company.

However, Toon Wilderbeek, president of Organon International, told Reuters Health: “We are big enough to do our own research.”

He also told the news agency that he saw opportunities to provide services to larger pharmaceutical companies for research into drugs that are in an early stage of development.

Mr Wilderbeek commented: “Until a few years ago Organon was a more inward looking company and the recent years and we should have realised that we have to work together.”

A previous Reuters poll of industry analysts revealed that four out of nine believed that a public offering of Organon was unlikely for the remainder of 2006, explaining that the company could need more time to collate data for asenapine, an anti-psychotic drug developed with Pfizer and a potential blockbuster.

Only one of the nine analysts believed that Organon would be bought by another company. Organon’s cooperation with Pfizer would mean that Pfizer would be the only realistic bidder, according to Jan Hein de Vroe, an analyst for Kempen.

In 2005, Organon’s annual sales came to 2.4 billion euros (1.6 billion pounds) and claims to invest one of the industry’s largest percentages of sales into research and design. The company specialises in contraceptives, gynaecology, fertility, neuroscience and anaesthetics.

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