King Pharma to acquire Alpharma for about $1.6 billion

Puntúa la noticia :

Nota de los usuarios: - (0votos)

• Bolsa, mercados y cotizaciones
• Empresas y finanzas
• Telecomunicaciones y tecnología
• Medio ambiente
• Salud

Share

Tweet

elEconomista.es en Twitter

Follow @eleconomistaes

EcoTablet - ¡Gratis en App Store!

La plataforma más completa de información y servicios económicos para iPad.

• Suscribirse al boletín
• Imprimir
• Enviar
• Aumentar texto
• Reducir texto
• Haga doble click sobre una palabra para ver su signifcado
• Sudoku: Juega cada día a uno nuevo
• El tiempo: Consulta la previsión para tu ciudad

BOSTON (Reuters) - King Pharmaceuticals Inc said on Monday it has agreed to acquire Alpharma Inc for about $1.6 billion to expand its pain drug business.

King's offer of $37 a share has been accepted by Alpharma's board and represents a premium of 10.4 percent over Alpharma's closing share price on Friday of $33.50.

Alpharma's shares jumped 6.9 percent to $35.80 in premarket trading on Nasdaq.

The agreement, if approved by shareholders, will give King Alpharma's pain drug Kadian and pain patch Flector, in addition to drugs to treat animals. It also gives King Alpharma's experimental pain drug Embeda.

Earlier this month an advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said morphine-based Embeda is somewhat less attractive to drug abusers, a potential marketing boon if the agency allows the company to include such a claim in its label.

The FDA is also weighing whether to approve a similar product from King and partner Pain Therapeutics Inc called Remoxy. The advisory panel said Remoxy also appeared less susceptible to abuse than other similar drugs such as Purdue Pharma's Oxycontin.

Bristol, Tennessee-based King, which makes the blood pressure drug Altace and muscle relaxant Skelaxin, originally offered $33 a share for Alpharma, but later sweetened the bid after Alpharma resisted.

The $37 a share offer represents a premium of 54 percent over Alpharma's closing price of $24.04 the day before King's first offer on August 22.

King generated revenue of $2.7 billion last year, while Alpharma, based in Bridgewater, New Jersey, had revenue of $722 million.

King said it expects the transaction to add to its earnings per share, excluding one-time items, in the second full year following completion of the transaction, which it expects to occur by the end of this year.

King said it expects to achieve cost savings of $50 million to $70 million over the same period, mainly derived from general and administrative cost cuts and research and development savings achieved by avoiding the expense of new sales representatives for the launch of their new pain drug.

Credit Suisse and Wachovia Securities are acting as financial advisers to King. Banc of America Securities LLC is advising Alpharma.

(Reporting by Toni Clarke, editing by Dave Zimmerman)

PUBLICIDAD

- Recibe nuestros análisis Diarios sobre Divisas, Acciones y Opciones. ¡Apúntate ya! ¡Es GRATIS!

- Opere en más de 8.000 CFDs. Infórmese y obtenga su CFD Trading Guide

- Nuevos spreads en materias primas: Oro tan sólo 0,3 puntos, Plata 0,25, Petróleo 0,35

- Opera desde 2,95 € en tiempo real con Self Bank.