Baxalta Said in Talks to Buy Drugmaker to Bolster Independence
2015-08-28 16:21:47.197 GMT
By Ed Hammond, Manuel Baigorri and Cynthia Koons
(Bloomberg) -- Baxalta Inc., the drugmaker fending off a
$30 billion takeover offer from Shire Plc, is in talks to make
an acquisition of its own to bolster its status as an
independent company, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Baxalta is working with bankers on the acquisition of a
U.S.-based hematology-oncology specialist valued at about $2
billion, said the people, who asked not to be identified because
the information is private. The discussions continue and there
is no certainty a deal will be reached.
The target couldn’t immediately be identified and it’s
unclear how any deal by Baxalta would affect Shire’s pursuit of
the Deerfield, Illinois-based company, spun off from Baxter
International Inc. in July.
A representative for Baxalta declined to comment.
Shire Interest
Shire is interested in Baxalta to bolster its focus on rare
diseases, whose treatments have become one of the hottest
properties for drugmakers because of the potential for high-
priced products and incentives offered by regulators, including
tax breaks and seven years of market exclusivity. The FDA
defines rare diseases as those that affect fewer than 200,000
people in the U.S.
Since Shire went public with its all-stock takeover
proposal, Baxalta’s management has sought to paint the Irish
drugmaker as trying to buy it cheaply.
“Is it trying to opportunistically acquire our attractive
hemophilia, immunology and growing oncology platforms without
true synergies?” Baxalta Chief Executive Officer Ludwig Hantson
said in an interview earlier this month. “We have an attractive
set of franchises and it would be a shame to hand it over for a
low-ball valuation.”
Deal Pursuit
Baxalta’s management has made public its interest in
pursuing deals in the hematology sector. Oncology is also ripe
for deal activity, with pharmaceutical companies seeking out the
newest therapies in an area that’s seen significant scientific
advances in recent years.
AbbVie Inc. beat out Johnson & Johnson in March with a $21
billion bid for Pharmacyclics Inc., the maker of a blockbuster
blood cancer therapy that sells for $100,000 a year. Companies
such as Juno Therapeutics Inc., Kite Pharma Inc. and Bluebird
Bio Inc. are viewed as possible takeover targets as well. They
are working on experimental medicines called chimeric antigen
receptors, or CAR, that engineers the body’s T-cells, which
normally fight infections or abnormal cells, so they can
recognize and destroy tumors. These therapies are being studied
in a range of hematologic cancers.
Immuno-oncology has also seen significant advances in
recent years, with the approval of drugs such as Merck & Co.’s
Keytruda and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s Opdivo. Those treatments
stimulate the immune system to help fight cancer and are being
studied in a number of different types of tumors. Bristol-Myers
has done a number of deals recently, spending $1.6 billion
earlier this year for Flexus Biosciences Inc. and Rigel
Pharmaceuticals Inc., both in the area of cancer immunotherapy.
For Related News and Information:
Top Stories:TOP
To contact the reporters on this story:
Ed Hammond in New York at +1-212-617-1963 or
ehammond12@bloomberg.net;
Manuel Baigorri in London at +44-20-3525-4457 or
mbaigorri@bloomberg.net;
Cynthia Koons in New York at +1-212-617-5253 or
ckoons@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Jeffrey McCracken at +1-212-617-8517 or
jmccracken3@bloomberg.net
Elizabeth Wollman, Beth Williams
2015-08-28 16:21:47.197 GMT
By Ed Hammond, Manuel Baigorri and Cynthia Koons
(Bloomberg) -- Baxalta Inc., the drugmaker fending off a
$30 billion takeover offer from Shire Plc, is in talks to make
an acquisition of its own to bolster its status as an
independent company, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Baxalta is working with bankers on the acquisition of a
U.S.-based hematology-oncology specialist valued at about $2
billion, said the people, who asked not to be identified because
the information is private. The discussions continue and there
is no certainty a deal will be reached.
The target couldn’t immediately be identified and it’s
unclear how any deal by Baxalta would affect Shire’s pursuit of
the Deerfield, Illinois-based company, spun off from Baxter
International Inc. in July.
A representative for Baxalta declined to comment.
Shire Interest
Shire is interested in Baxalta to bolster its focus on rare
diseases, whose treatments have become one of the hottest
properties for drugmakers because of the potential for high-
priced products and incentives offered by regulators, including
tax breaks and seven years of market exclusivity. The FDA
defines rare diseases as those that affect fewer than 200,000
people in the U.S.
Since Shire went public with its all-stock takeover
proposal, Baxalta’s management has sought to paint the Irish
drugmaker as trying to buy it cheaply.
“Is it trying to opportunistically acquire our attractive
hemophilia, immunology and growing oncology platforms without
true synergies?” Baxalta Chief Executive Officer Ludwig Hantson
said in an interview earlier this month. “We have an attractive
set of franchises and it would be a shame to hand it over for a
low-ball valuation.”
Deal Pursuit
Baxalta’s management has made public its interest in
pursuing deals in the hematology sector. Oncology is also ripe
for deal activity, with pharmaceutical companies seeking out the
newest therapies in an area that’s seen significant scientific
advances in recent years.
AbbVie Inc. beat out Johnson & Johnson in March with a $21
billion bid for Pharmacyclics Inc., the maker of a blockbuster
blood cancer therapy that sells for $100,000 a year. Companies
such as Juno Therapeutics Inc., Kite Pharma Inc. and Bluebird
Bio Inc. are viewed as possible takeover targets as well. They
are working on experimental medicines called chimeric antigen
receptors, or CAR, that engineers the body’s T-cells, which
normally fight infections or abnormal cells, so they can
recognize and destroy tumors. These therapies are being studied
in a range of hematologic cancers.
Immuno-oncology has also seen significant advances in
recent years, with the approval of drugs such as Merck & Co.’s
Keytruda and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s Opdivo. Those treatments
stimulate the immune system to help fight cancer and are being
studied in a number of different types of tumors. Bristol-Myers
has done a number of deals recently, spending $1.6 billion
earlier this year for Flexus Biosciences Inc. and Rigel
Pharmaceuticals Inc., both in the area of cancer immunotherapy.
For Related News and Information:
Top Stories:TOP
To contact the reporters on this story:
Ed Hammond in New York at +1-212-617-1963 or
ehammond12@bloomberg.net;
Manuel Baigorri in London at +44-20-3525-4457 or
mbaigorri@bloomberg.net;
Cynthia Koons in New York at +1-212-617-5253 or
ckoons@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Jeffrey McCracken at +1-212-617-8517 or
jmccracken3@bloomberg.net
Elizabeth Wollman, Beth Williams