Client goal
Our client is OldPharma, a major pharmaceutical company (pharmaco) with USD 10 billion a year in revenues. Its corporate headquarters and primary research and development (R&D) centers are in Germany, with regional sales offices worldwide.
Description of OldPharma
OldPharma has a long, successful tradition in researching, developing, and selling “small molecule” drugs. This class of drugs represents the vast majority of drugs today, including aspirin and most blood-pressure or cholesterol medications. OldPharma is interested in entering a new, rapidly growing segment of drugs called “biologicals”. These are often proteins or other large, complex molecules that can treat conditions not addressable by traditional drugs.
Biological R&D is vastly different from small molecule R&D. To gain these capabilities, pharmacos can build them from scratch, partner with existing startups, or acquire them. Since its competitors are already several years ahead of OldPharma, OldPharma wants to jumpstart its biologicals program by acquiring BioFuture, a leading biologicals start-up based in the San Francisco area. BioFuture was founded 12 years ago by several prominent scientists and now employs 200 people. It is publicly traded and at its current share price the company is worth about USD 1 billion in total.
McKinsey study
OldPharma has engaged McKinsey to evaluate the BioFuture acquisition and advise on its strategic fit with OldPharma’s biologicals strategy.
Should OldPharma acquire BioFuture?