Pfizer bidding for rare disease specialist Sobi
Pfizer sees drugs for rare diseases as an important opportunity.
US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is looking to buy rare disease specialist Orphan Biovitrum AB, according to a Reuters report. The price that Pfizer has offered has not been disclosed. The Swedish company, known as Sobi, disclosed earlier this week that a potential buyer had made a preliminary offer.
Pfizer has established a Rare Disease Research Unit and sees drugs for rare diseases as an important opportunity in its mix of businesses, according to Reuters.
Pfizer has actively been looking at takeover targets after a failed attempt to buy rival British drugmaker AstraZeneca. It officially gave up on this project after its final $118 billion (£77.2 billion) bid was rejected on May 26th last year.
Pfizer downgrades profit forecast
The announcement comes as Pfizer cut its full-year revenue and profit forecast, blaming the stronger dollar. Its 2015 revenue forecast now ranges between $44 billion and $46 billion, from $44.5 billion and $46.5 billion. "The only thing that they lowered their guidance on … was all currency," Leerink Partners Pharma Analyst Seamus Fernandez told CNBC.
Meanwhile, it reported on Tuesday (April 28th) that Its first-quarter profit reached $2.38 billion, or 38 cents a share, up from $2.33 billion, or 36 cents a share, in the year-earlier period.
Pfizer's net profit rose to $2.38 billion, or 38 cents per share, for the quarter, from $2.33 billion, or 36 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 4.3 per cent to $10.86 billion.
Shares of the drugmaker remained flat at $34.62 in premarket trading.
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