A quick-acting, inhaled antipsychotic, Adasuve has been approved in the U.S. and EU, where it will be commercialized by Spain’s Grupo Ferrer. Teva takes over after previous U.S. partner Biovail stepped away upon being bought out by Valeant.

Whether or not the Affordable Care Act survives a Supreme Court review, private equity investors see abundant opportunities in the rapidly reforming U.S. healthcare landscape, although buyers’ and sellers’ different views of the future lead to pricing disparities.

In early March, Eli Lilly became the third major pharmaceutical company to scupper its inhaled insulin program. Almost immediately the blogosphere began nailing inhaled insulin's coffin shut. IN VIVO thinks it's still too soon to deliver a eulogy. One company, MannKind, continues undaunted, despite the setbacks for it's competitors, hoping to bring its inhaled insulin to market by 2010. Meantime, specialty pharmaceutical companies or glucose monitoring testing outfits might be interested in the inhaled programs spurned by Big Pharma, but only for the right price.

MedPointe was born via the leveraged buy-out of an old, private pharmaceutical company, Carter-Wallace. Accepting financial strictures was part of the deal; the company must remain profitable. This increases the challenge for the "founders," seasoned pharma execs intent on leveraging the infrastructure they overhauled, to created an in-licensing based marketing powerhouse. Beyond competing with bigger pharma marketers, management's challenge remains bringing in new assets affordably.