February 18, 2015
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
DUBLIN – Ireland-based Actavis plc , a manufacturer of generic pharmaceuticals, will adopt the new corporate name of Allergan Inc. , following the acquisition of Allergan Inc. The company will retain the Actavis name for select geographic regions and products, the company said.
The combination of the two companies will be focused on developing new medications in therapeutic categories, the company said in a release.
“By adopting the Allergan name for the corporation we will ensure that our corporate identity reflects the dramatic evolution of our company within the pharmaceutical industry,”CEO Brent Saunders said. “Uniting under the Allergan corporate umbrella, while retaining the Allergan and Actavis identities for the two respective businesses, defines to customers, competitors, employees and investors that this combination of two powerful, successful and growing companies is transformational, and will reflect our position as the most dynamic growth pharmaceutical company in global healthcare.”
The corporate name change will be subject to approval by shareholders at the company’s annual meeting set for March 10.
Allergan is the maker of Botox and other anti-wrinkle drugs, as well as its manufacturing of implants for breast augmentation. Sales of Botox were about $2 billion last year, one third of Allergan’s annual revenues and an increase of about 10 percent over sales in 2013.
Actavis reported strong sales growth in 2014 and announced FDA approval of Namzaric, a fixed-dose combination (FDC) of memantine hydrochloride extended-release and donepezil hydrochloride for the treatment of moderate to severe dementia of the Alzheimer’s. Additionally Actavis reported a positive recommendation by an FDA advisory committee for the anti-infective AVYCAZ. Actavis also filed a new drug application for the antipsychotic Cariprazine.
In November Actavis acquired Allergan for $66 billion in a combination of cash and stock. Under the terms, Actavis would pay a total of $219 a share with nearly 60 percent of the deal in cash and the rest in stock, Actavis said. Allergan had also been courted by Valeant in a deal that reporteddly went as high as $60 billion. When the acquisition was announced, Saunders said the deal would result in $1.8 billion in annual cost savings, improved marketing success by combining sales forces and expanded reach into key growth markets in Asia and Latin America.
In 2012 U.S.-based Watson Pharmaceuticals bought Actavis and took the name of the acquired company. The company moved operations to Ireland from Switzerland in 2013 to take advantage of better tax rates.
BioSpace Temperature Poll
Will Job Cuts Continue? After a week that saw Quintiles, Sanofi and Actavis slashing almost a 1,000 biotech jobs, BioSpace wonders if the ax will continue to fall. Give us your thoughts about the sector’s “streamlining” below.
