Dive Brief:
- The ongoing M&A saga between generics firms Mylan, Teva, and Perrigo has taken another strange turn, with Reuters reporting that Mylan board executive chairman Robert Coury told investors last week that he would consider buying Teva.
- Coury's statement is surprising for several reasons. For one, Teva has aggressively been going after Mylan in a takeover bid, only to be rebuffed in strong terms by the Coury-led board, which insists that the companies would face a major culture clash and would simply not fit well together.
- Mylan instead has been going after Perrigo (which has, in turn, rejected the company's advances). But as it turns out, Coury would also consider turning the tables on Teva and purchasing it after completing a Perrigo acquisition.
Dive Insight:
So much for culture clashes.
The implication behind Coury's statements is that the numerous misfits between the two firms could be mollified by having Mylan's management team heading up a combined Mylan-Teva entity. In fact, that's what Mylan CEO Heather Bresch told Reuters that Coury was getting at with his statement.
"We were just saying in a hypothetical situation, if it ever were to happen after all these other things, the only way it could happen is with us," said Bresch, while noting that antitrust issues would still be a concern.