Year: 2009-10

Company: Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals

Liaison(s): Yamil Hernandez, Vineeth Raja

Sigma-Tau is one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical groups. The Group is headquartered in Rome, Italy. Founded in 1957, Sigma-Tau stands by their motto “Rare Dedication.” As a pharmaceutical company, it has focused its attention on the unmet medical needs of rare diseases. The United States wholly owned subsidiary, Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals (STPI), is based in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The company’s products address needs of patients suffering from various rare disorders related to metabolism, oncology, immunodeficiency disorders, invasive fungal infections, and renal failure. Recently, Sigma-Tau acquired Enzon Pharmaceuticals, Inc’s specialty pharmaceuticals business, expanding its orphan product portfolio in the market. As a part of its future expansion plans, Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals asked the TMP team to identify potential acquisition/in-licensing targets that fit within the company’s rare disease business model. The focus of the project was on products with orphan designation in the US and EU. Starting with over 2,500 products, the team developed a methodology to identify optimal targets for STPI. The team performed extensive research on these products and filtered them through stringent exclusion criteria, including over 20 parameters. As a final deliverable, the team produced a comprehensive report detailing product information on top candidates. In addition, the team developed a comprehensive database for Sigma-Tau to examine the US and EU orphan product market in future.