June 30, 2015
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Sr. Editor
Boehringer Ingelheim is talking to Hikma Pharmaceuticals about selling its Roxane Laboratories, Inc. unit, as other rumored suitors Mallinckrodt Plc and Perrigo Company look on uneasily, Bloomberg News reported this week.
The sale would include manufacturing and supply chain affiliate, Boehringer Ingelheim Roxane Inc., as well as Roxane Labs itself.
Citing people familiar with the matter, today’s report said that Hikma could spend as much as $2.2 billion on Roxane, which had already been identified as a target for the Hikma by analysts since early last spring. The article’s sources said the deal could be financed via cash and asset or swaps, or both.
Boheringer has already confirmed it began shopping Roxane to potential buyers in April. They have declined to comment further on the process or interested parties.
Bloomberg said the German drugmaker will likely announced the winning bidder in a matter of weeks, if it decides to sell Roxane definitively. Morgan Stanley is said to be the bookrunner on the sale.
Any buy up of Roxane would be just one more deal to add to the scorching pace of dealmaking in biotech this year. There has been a flurry of large pharmaceutical companies snapping up smaller startups and entities, including Pfizer Inc. ’s $17 billion merger agreements with Illinois-based Hospira, Inc., or Amgen ’s acquisition of Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for $10 billion in 2013.
That’s added up to an estimated $100 billion spent on pharmaceutical mergers and acquisitions since 2014, and more than 245 deals this year alone. Pharma has responded by enlisting more executives with backgrounds in M&A, like Robert L. Rosiello, who took over the role of chief financial officer at Canadian drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. in mid-June.
Before coming to Valeant, Rosiello spent 30 years at McKinsey & Company helping healthcare, technology and consumer companies deliver growth through mergers and acquisitions. With continued growth in bolt-on acquisitions, and a sector that’s grown more than 500 percent in three years, it is clear Big Pharma has a need for someone with Rosiello’s background.
After Bristol-Myers Squibb Wonder Drug Meets Endpoints, Will FDA Process Be Up to Snuff?
Our most popular story last week was about a new wonder drug that wowed the FDA. An experimental anticoagulant drug under joint development between Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and Pfizer Inc. met all primary and secondary endpoints in a Phase III study determining safety and efficacy—and our readers responded. The hope now is it will be sped to patients as fast as possible.
That’s lead BioSpace to ask, what do you think about the drug approval process in this country? Let us know your ideas.
