Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd is buying Auspex Pharmaceuticals Inc for about US$3.2 billion in a move to strengthen its position on central nervous system condition treatments.
Jerusalem-based Teva said on Monday that it would pay US$101 per share, marking a 47 percent premium to San Diego-based Auspex’s closing price on Friday last week.
Auspex does not yet have a product on the market. Its lead product candidate is Austedo, which is aimed at treating involuntary movement associated with the genetic disorder Huntington’s disease.
Teva is one of the world’s largest generic drug developers. It also has a range of specialty medicines, including Copaxone for multiple sclerosis and Azilect for Parkinson’s disease.
Its revenue last year was US$20.3 billion.
“The acquisition of Auspex is a significant step in strengthening Teva’s leadership position in central nervous system [disorders] and advances us into [the] underserved movement disorder markets,” Teva president and chief executive Erez Vigodman said in a statement.
Teva expects the buyout of Auspex to start contributing revenue next year with an anticipated launch of Austedo.
The acquisition is expected to close in the middle of this year.
Separately, the US’ largest health insurer, UnitedHealth Group Inc, will muscle up for its fight against rising prescription drug costs by spending more than US$12 billion to buy pharmacy benefits manager Catamaran Corp.
Pharmacy benefits managers help negotiate the prices that customers pay for prescription drugs. They are seen as a key component in the push to contain soaring costs from specialty drugs, complex medicines that can represent treatment breakthroughs, but often at a much higher price than other drugs.
Rising costs from these drugs are expected to affect more patients as use of the treatments grows and coverage for them shrinks.
UnitedHealth and Catamaran said on Monday that their deal would combine businesses that have “distinctive, rapidly growing specialty pharmacy services” for a segment of the market that is expected to quadruple from an estimated US$100 billion in revenues last year to possibly US$400 billion by 2020.
The combination of UnitedHealth’s OptumRx pharmacy benefits managers business and Catamaran will create a company that fills about 1 billion prescriptions annually.
UnitedHealth said on Monday that, for the latest deal, it will spend US$61.50 in cash on each share of Catamaran. That was a 27 percent premium to Catamaran’s closing price on Friday last week.
Catamaran, based in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg, Illinois, had about 207.5 million issued shares at the end of January, which puts the deal price at roughly US$12.76 billion.
The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter this year.
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