Isis CEO Sees Partner Genzyme Being Acquired By Sanofi -Reuters

French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis SA (SNY) will likely succeed in its hostile bid to acquire U.S. biotechnology company Genzyme Corp. (GENZ), the chief executive of Genzyme drug-development partner Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ISIS) told Reuters in an interview published late Tuesday.

Isis CEO Stanley Crooke said discussions of a "contingent value right" that would give Genzyme shareholders an additional benefit if certain sales targets for an experimental multiple sclerosis drug, alemtuzumab, are met will likely seal the deal.

The chief executives of Genzyme and Sanofi have said their companies are in talks and, on Tuesday, both acknowledged some hope for an end to a months-long stalemate. Genzyme has repeatedly rejected an offer of $18.5 billion, or $69 a share, from Sanofi, arguing that the offer undervalues the company. Sanofi, meanwhile, has said Genzyme is too optimistic in its sales projection for the yet-to-be-approved alemtuzumab.

Isis has teamed with Genzyme to develop experimental cholesterol drug mipomersen, which is based on a novel technology known as antisense that aims to interfere at the genetic level to prevent formation of rogue proteins.

"Sanofi is a strong commercial organization ... they look at mipomersen as an important part of the growth story," Crooke said, adding that Sanofi brings "added muscle" to developing Genzyme's product pipeline.

"Based on everything we know today, it (mipomersen) is going to be a Genzyme, and presumably a Sanofi drug," Crooke said in an interview at a J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) health care conference in San Francisco.

Full story at http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70B0FB20110112

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