COPENHAGEN, May 8 (Reuters)
Danish pharmaceutical company H. Lundbeck is to buy Chelsea Therapeutics for up
to $658 million in a deal that would give it the rights to the U.S firm's
neurology drug Northera.
Chelsea stockholders will be
offered $6.44 per share in cash and contingent value rights (CVRs) that may pay
up to $1.50 per share, the two firms said. The total would represent a premium
of 59 percent over Wednesday's closing price of Chelsea shares.
By acquiring Chelsea
Therapeutics, Lundbeck would gain the rights to Northera, which was recently
approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and is expected to be
launched in the third quarter of 2014.
The drug treats a rare form of
low blood pressure associated with neurological disorders such as Parkinson's
disease.
Northera has the potential to
become the most valuable of Lundbeck's four neurological drugs in the United
States, the Danish company said.
Lundbeck Chief Executive Ulf
Wiinberg said at a conference call that the drug "fits perfectly"
into Lundbeck's existing portfolio of drugs, which mainly consists of drugs for
brain diseases.
The Chelsea board unanimously
approved the transaction but it still requires the approval of Chelsea
shareholders which Lundbeck said it expected to receive in the summer.
"Lundbeck is doing this
to increase its long-term earnings," Sydbank analyst Soren Lontoft Hansen
told Reuters. "The criteria for success is whether they can generate a
peak (annual) sale for Northera of $400 million."
Shares in Lundbeck were up 0.4
percent at 1325 GMT, outperforming the Danish benchmark index which was down
0.1 percent. Shares in Chelsea Therapeutics were up 32.8 percent in premarket
trading.
“Pharmaceutical Marketing for Non – Marketers”
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“Pharmaceutical Marketing for Non – Marketers”
30 - 31 of May - Metropolitan Hotel, Athen
Click here to download the seminar brochure: