European allergy company Stallergenes is preparing to look for a U.S. partner for its oral hay-fever treatment Oralair. The search will begin in Q4 after the France-based company meets with the FDA. CEO Albert Saporta says Stallergenes has retained Torreya Partners to help with its search and hopes to announce a deal by June 2011. "We are all set to begin our search for a partner," Saporta says, as quoted by Bloomberg. "The kind of partner we are looking for must have a strong sales force in the U.S. and good knowledge of how the FDA works."
According to Bloomberg, analyst Christophe-Raphael Ganet of Oddo Securities believes Abbott Labs, Sanofi-Aventis, GlaxoSmithKline and Forest Labs would make good partners for Stallergenes. Saporta says a partner would probably handle the FDA filing for the drug, given that the chosen company would be more familiar with U.S. regulations than Stallergenes. He adds that if the price is right, the company would be open to a takeover offer from a larger developer. Oralair has already been approved by German regulators.
- read the Bloomberg article for more