December 4, 2014
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Dublin, Ireland-based Actavis Plc , which operates several facilities in the U.S., early this week filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) with the state of California indicating it would lay off 200 workers. The layoffs will go into effect January 2.
Actavis, which is domiciled in Ireland, but otherwise operates out of Parsippany, N.J, has been busy this year. On October 6 the company announced a definitive merger agreement with Chicago-based Durata Therapeutics, Inc. . Actavis, under the deal will buy all outstanding Durata common stock for $23 per share in cash, or about $675 million.
Earlier, in September, Actavis bought Allergan Inc. , maker of Botox and other therapeutics, in a quickly negotiated deal for $66 billion. Allergan has been embroiled in a hostile takeover attempt by Pershing Square Capital Management and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. . Allergan ultimately rejected that offer.
Since that deal, there has been a great deal of speculation on other potential acquisitions by Actavis. Possible targets include GI drugmaker Salix Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. and Omega Pharma NV.
In late October several unnamed sources indicated that Actavis was going to join Perrigo Company , Sanofi and Boehringer Ingelheim in an attempt to purchase Omega Pharma, the fastest growing consumer healthcare company in the U.K. and Ireland.
That same month the company, which had recently acquired Forest Laboratories, Inc. , reported that it was shuttering Forest’s Earth City site in St. Louis, Missouri, laying off about 190 people, as well as about 94 employees at its Long Island pharmaceutical packaging site. This is part of ongoing restructuring. Forest’s headquarters in New York will be shut down in mid-2015, and although others facilities have not been specifically identified for closure, the company is clearly streamlining overlapping operations.
A year earlier, in October 2013, Actavis acquired Warner Chilcott, Plc , strengthening the company’s position in women’s health and urology, as well as gastroenterology and dermatology.
The Actavis-Forest deal was valued at $28 billion. The combined companies are projected to achieve annual revenues of more than $15 billion in 2015. Actavis currently markets more than 35 products across seven medical market segments. It produces five blockbuster franchises and sells in approximately 60 countries. Each of the blockbusters report sales greater than $1 billion and are in the areas of central nervous system, gastroenterology, urology, cardiovascular and women’s health.
