The Abbott Laboratories on Tuesday, March 09, said that the company will pay $450 million in cash for Facet Biotech Corp. on purpose of expanding the company’s access to biotechnology drugs, including a potential treatment for multiple sclerosis.
Accordingly, the pharmaceuticals healthcare company will buy each Facet share at price of $27, a 67 percent premium over Facet’s closing price of $16.21. Hours after the trading was made, Facet’s shares gradually increased from $10.89 to $27.10 as investors are seeking for a higher bid.
In December 2009, Biogen Idec, Facet’s partner in building up the drug daclizumab for treating multiple sclerosis, offered to buy the corporation’s share at price $17.50 per share.
However, Facet declined without solicitation for the reason that such offer undervalued the company. Biogen Idec had no immediate comment on Abbott’s offer.
The total purchase price, according to Abbott Lab, was about $722 million including $272 million of Facet's cash and securities which was achieved at the time of the deal’s closing.
According to John Leonard, Abbott’s senior vice president for global pharmaceutical research and development, the bidding success will help reinforce Abbott’s biotechnological capacities and pharmaceutical pipeline. He said that daclizumab (a therapeutic humanized monoclonal antibody to the alpha subunit of the IL-2 receptor of T cells) would be effective in treating multiple sclerosis and could be a potential choice for people with this disease.
Answering questions about the company’s rejection of Biogen Idec’s offer last year, Faheem Hasnain, Facet’s president and chief executive, said that the trade was successful as Abbott valued truly and fully the company’s stockholders and that it validated the potential of Facet’s clinical and technology assets.
Abbott shares were down 0.6% at $54.45 in after-hours trading. The stock is up 17% over the past year.
Abbott Laboratories is a diversified pharmaceuticals health care company. It has 72,000 employees and operates in over 130 countries. The corporate headquarters are in Abbott Park, Illinois, located near North Chicago, Illinois.
Abbott To Buy Facet Biotech For $450 Million