NEW YORK — Drugmaker Wyeth is in preliminary acquisition talks with Dutch vaccine maker Crucell NV, according to a statement from Crucell.

The statement came shortly after a Wall Street Journal report saying Wyeth was in talks to buy Crucell, which focuses on vaccines, for up to $1.35 billion. A Wyeth spokesman said the company would not provide additional information.

The report, published on the newspaper's Web site Wednesday and attributed to unnamed sources, came hours after Wyeth Chief Executive and Chairman Bernard Poussot told analysts he believes "the only way forward for the pharmaceutical industry is to get into biotechnology."

Poussot's comments came during a conference hosted by Goldman Sachs.

Wyeth already has invested in the biotech sector and gains a large part of its revenue from biotech products. In October, the company said about 37 percent of revenue comes from biotech products.

The company's biotech products include the blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis treatment Enbrel, cancer drug Mylotarg and the Xyntha blood-clotting medicine for people with hemophilia.

"It looks today obvious everybody wants to be in biotech," Poussot told analysts Wednesday. "We started this a while ago, and I think from that standpoint we might be ahead of what is becoming a convergent model. Biopharmaceutical is probably more the future of big pharma than just big pharma alone."

Biotech drugs are made using living cells, and are often more targeted at specific conditions and have higher profit margins, despite being more expensive to produce. Traditional pharmaceuticals are made using chemical compounds.

Pharmaceutical companies have been eyeing biotech companies for acquisitions as many face the loss of key product revenue and need to rebuild their pipelines. In December, Wyeth bought private British biotech company Thiakis Ltd. for up to $150 million. That company is developing medicines in the potentially lucrative field of obesity.

In 2008, Eli Lilly and Co. closed its $6.5 billion buyout of biotechnology company ImClone Systems Inc., while diversified health care products company Johnson & Johnson is in the process of buying Omrix Biopharmaceuticals Inc. for $438 million.

The list also includes Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s $235 million buyout of cancer drug developer Kosan Biosciences Inc. and Japan-based Takeda's $8.8 billion buyout of Millennium Pharmaceuticals.