Irish-Israeli pharmaceutical company Perrigo is continuing its buying spree and does not seem perturbed by the hostile takeover attempts by Mylan NV, which has offered $34 billion in cash and shares for it.
Perrigo, which specializes in over the counter drugs, has agreed to buy a portfolio of products from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
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GSK’s consumer healthcare division has to offload the products under the terms of the European Commission’s approval of its consumer health joint venture with Novartis.
Under the terms of the deal, Perrigo will acquire rights to these products:
GSK’s NiQuitin nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) business, primarily in the European Economic Area (EEA) and Brazil, and Novartis’s legacy Australian NRT business, including the Nicotinell brand.
Several assorted OTC brands including Coldrex (cold and flu treatment) across the EEA, Panodil (pain relief), Nezeril (nasal decongestant), Nasin (nasal decongestant) in Sweden, Novartis’s legacy cold sore management products primarily in the EEA, marketed under the brand names Vectavir, Pencivir, Fenivir, Fenlips and Vectatone.
Perrigo chairman and chief executive Joseph Papa said the deal confirmed its strategy of making “selective, accretive transactions to expand our durable base business”.
He said: “We are building on the global platform, we established with the Omega Pharma acquisition [completed earlier this year] to capture an even greater share of the $30 billion European OTC [over the counter drugs] market opportunity with several well-established, complementary brands that bolster our OTC product portfolio, ”
The deal comes as Perrigo continues to wrestle with the attention of generics group Mylan.
At a recent investor meeting Papa said that Mylan’s current bid of $75 in cash and 2.3 Mylan shares for each Perrigo share is nowhere near there.
Perrigo estimates Mylan’s offer as being worth $202 a share, saying the shares in Mylan have been inflated. Mylan has said the offer for Perrigo is worth $232.23 a share.
Mylan is fending off the attention of its larger Israeli rival, Teva.
Five weeks ago, Teva proposed buying Mylan for $40.1 billion in cash and stock in an open letter.
Mylan rejected that offer, saying that it preferred to go ahead with its attempt to buy Perrigo.
Yesterday, Mylan said Teva needed to make clear whether it will make a formal, binding offer or not.
“Stop playing games with our company, its business, mission and strategy and its stakeholders, ” executive chairman Robert Coury wrote Teva chief executive Erez Vigodman. “Teva and its board must stop pursuing what amounts to nothing more than an illusory alternative for our shareholders to the Perrigo transaction.”
