Celltech looking at German acquisitions

Celltech Group of the UK is believed to be looking at possibleacquisitions in Germany in a bid to increase its presence in Europe's largest pharmaceutical market, ahead of launching a number of major products. Reuters reports that the firm's chief executive, Peter Fellner, speaking on the fringes of an ABN AMRO Alfred Berg life sciences conference, said the cost of such a deal would be in the range of $50-$150 million.

Mr Fellner is quoted as saying that "European companies are not easy to find but we are looking at a number of possibilities," adding that these would be "small national companies or individual products...Germany is a particular focus." The company would appear to be in a strong financial position to make such a purchase, as it has cash of around L95 million ($130.4 million) and additional facilities of L115 million.

Such a move would be in line with Celltech's acquisitive strategy, which has seen the firm buy fellow UK firms Chiroscience and Medeva in the last few years (Marketletters passim). The firm already has operations in France and Spain.