Dive Brief:
- Pennsylvania-based generic and specialty drug manufacturer Mylan on Wednesday made a $29 billion bid to purchase Ireland-based Perrigo. That amounts to about $205 per share, or just over a 24% premium over Perrigo's Tuesday closing price, according to Fortune.
- If Perrigo accepts the bid and the deal closes, it will be the biggest biopharma deal of this (admittedly still young) year. Based on existing products, the combined company would have more than $15 billion in 2014 sales.
- One analyst speculated that, now that the company's cards on the table, other companies such as Valeant and Teva may make their own bids for Perrigo.
Dive Insight:
This is just the latest episode proving that biopharma's M&A frenzy is alive and well.
2015 is already off to a mad dash of deals in biotech and pharma, including the $21 billion AbbVie-Pharmacyclics deal, the $15 billion Pfizer-Hospira deal, and the $10 billion Valeant-Salix deal. If Perrigo accepts Mylan's offer, the resulting company would be one of the most powerful generics manufacturers in the world. Mylan's stock is up nearly 15% on the news so far, while Perrigo's share have gone flying nearly 20%.
Mylan is no stranger to strategic expansion by acquisition. The company's buyouts of Merck KGaA's generics arm and last year's purchase of Abbott Labs' generics business catapulted the company to the top ranks of the generic pharmaceutical pack.
Judging by the pace and size of deals so far this year, there's plenty of reason to expect even more M&As in 2015. Check out BioPharma Dive's in-depth feature on what's driving biopharma deals in the current market, and four potential deals we still might see in the coming months.
UPDATE: Here is Mylan's statement on the offer: "This proposal is the culmination of a number of prior discussions between Mylan and Perrigo about the compelling strategic and financial logic of this combination,” said Robert Coury, Mylan’s executive chairman, in a statement.