Go West to go East
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
The acquisition that went West to go East. That's Astex, an acquisition announced 5 September for which Japanese pharmaceutical company Otsuka will pay $885m. But Astex's journey has been a long one, and although $885m sounds like a lot of money, it has been a long time in the accruing. Astex was a case of "start-up, work-up, sell-up". Life and the life sciences are much more complicated than that.