
Shire moves to seal Baxalta deal with improved offer
pharmafile | December 22, 2015 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing |Â Â Baxalta, Flemming Ornskov, ShireÂ
Shire is set to sweeten its $30 billion bid for Baxalta by offering 40% of the total, or $12 billion, in cash, as it seeks to finally tie up the long-running merger saga.
Shire made an initial $30 billion all share offer, which was dismissed in August as having undervalued Baxalta. Now reports say Dublin-based Shire, led by Fleming Ornskov, is prepared to come back and get the deal done after seeing his both companies’ values fall more than 20% following the rejection.
Chief executive Ornskov believes Baxalta, a spin of company from Baxter International, is a perfect fit to strengthen Shire’s push into treatments for rare or orphan diseases, a segment which now makes up some 40% of its sales.
Baxalta has in its own portfolio drugs for rare conditions including blood cancers, immune system disorders and haemophilia, which Shire believes could help it reach sales in excess of $19 billion a year as a combined company by 2020.
In the interim, Shire has finalised one acquisition in the rare diseases field: a $5.9 billion purchase of biotech Dyax and its hereditary angioedema portfolio.
But Baxalta remains its number-one target, and bankers and advisors face a hectic Christmas period in an attempt to bring the saga to an end, with Ornskov said to be prepared to walk away very soon.
Joel Levy
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