BIG
%&"- 4
Deals in Brief
Biotechnology
Lab Results
LAST YEAR WAS A BOOM TIME
for biotechnology M&A. The $28.5
billion in biotech deal volume was
the highest of the decade, shattering the previous record of $9.2
billion in 2006. True, Astrazeneca plc’s $15 billion agreement to
buy Medimmune, Inc. (a deal announced April 23), accounted for
about half of 2007’s volume. Still,
even excluding that blockbuster
deal—the largest in biotech history—the sector was robust, as
larger drug companies snapped up
smaller fry to bolster their product
lines. The following three large biotech deals were announced in the
last six weeks of 2007. —D.M.
Eisai
MGI
Eisai Co., Ltd., announced December 10 that it had agreed to buy
MGI Pharma, Inc., for $3.9 billion
in cash. The buyer is betting that
MGI’s portfolio of cancer treatment
drugs will ease the earnings hit that
Eisai will face when its U.S. patent
on the Alzheimer’s drug Aricept expires in 2010. The parties hope to
close the deal in the first quarter.
FOR ACQUIROR EISAI CO., LTD. (TOKYO)
SULLIVAN & CROMWELL: Izumi Akai,
Stanley Farrar, and George Sampas.
FOR TARGET MGI PHARMA, INC.
(BLOOMINGTON, MINNESOTA)
HOGAN & HARTSON: Glenn Campbell
and Asher Rubin.
Celgene
Pharmion
Celgene Corporation and Pharmion
Corporation—already longtime
drug licensing partners—forged a
closer tie November 18 when they
announced their proposed combination. Celgene will pay $2.9 billion for
Pharmion, which at $72 in cash and
stock per target share amounts to a
46 percent premium to Pharmion’s
closing price on the last trading
day before the announcement. The
companies market thalidomide as a
treatment for leprosy and myeloma,
a blood-borne cancer. Thalidomide
was first marketed in the 1950s as
an antidote for morning sickness,
though that usage was halted after
the drug was found to cause birth
defects. The companies hope to close
the deal in the second quarter.
FOR ACQUIROR CELGENE CORPORATION
(SUMMIT, NEW JERSE Y)
PROSKAUER ROSE: Robert Cantone,
John Isacson, and Henry Smith III.
ARNOLD & PORTER: Jonathan Gleklen,
Michael Sohn, and Marleen Van
Kerckhove.
FOR TARGET PHARMION CORPORATION
(BOULDER)
WILLKIE FARR & GALLAGHER: William
Gump, Peter Jakes, and William
Rooney.
GlaxoSmithKline
Reliant Pharmaceuticals
Reliant Pharmaceuticals, Inc., was
planning to go public, but GlaxoSmithKline plc made it a better offer,
agreeing to pay $1.65 billion in cash
for the company in a deal that closed
December 19. Reliant bought the
U.S. marketing rights for its main
product—the cardiovascular drug
Lovaza—from Pronova Biopharma
ASA in 2004. Reliant filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 20 for
an initial public offering in which it
hoped to sell $300 million of stock.
The scuttled IPO would have valued
the company at about $1.3 billion.
FOR ACQUIROR GLAXOSMITHKLINE PLC
(LONDON)
CLEARY GOTTLIEB STEEN & HAMILTON:
Victor Lewkow.
FOR TARGET RELIANT PHARMACEUTICALS,
INC. (LIBER TY CORNER, NEW JERSEY)
LATHAM & WATKINS: Cathy Birkeland,
Thomas “Ted” Keim, and Michael
Pucker.
Fortress Investment Group LLC
[Big Deals, May 2007] and private equity shop The Blackstone
Group L.P. [Deals in Brief, September 2007]. At press time both
companies were trading well below their opening-day highs.
FOR ISSUER OCH-ZIFF CAPITAL
MANAGEMENT GROUP LLC
(NE W YORK)
IN-HOUSE: Chief legal counsel
Jeffrey Blockinger.
SKADDEN, ARPS, SLATE,
MEAGHER & FLOM: Corporate
Finance: Jennifer Bensch and
Matthew Mallow. Tax: James
Anderson and Charles Morgan.
M&A: Allison Schneirov
and Mark Smith. Investment
management: Michael Hoffman
and Anastasia Rockas. Banking
and institutional investing:
Sarah Ward. Employee benefits
and executive compensation:
Stuart Alperin. Trusts and
estates: Jonathan Lee Koslow.
Communications: Ivan
Schlager. (All are in New York
except for Anderson, who is in
London, and Schlager, who is in
Washington, D.C.)
FOR UNDERWRITERS
GOLDMAN, SACHS & CO. AND
LEHMAN BROTHERS (NEW
YORK)
IN-HOUSE: At Goldman:
assistant general counsel Karen
Canisius. At Lehman: senior
vice president Runa Saeki.
SULLIVAN & CROMWELL:
