The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday morning that Canada-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. (NYSE: VRX) is preparing to pay $1 billion for the closely held Sprout. An unnamed source told the Wall Street Journal that Valeant’s offer would pay all cash in two payments, the first $500 million this year and a second $500 million next year. Sprout said in its press release on Tuesday that its flibanserin drug will be available by prescription on October 17 under the brand name Addyi.
Valeant lost out last year on its bid for Allergan when Actavis offered pay $219 a share for the Botox maker. At the time, Valeant said that it would concentrate on “delivering strong organic results and evaluating acquisition opportunities as we always have: prudently, in a disciplined manner, and in the best interests of our shareholders.”
In mid-November of last year, when Valeant lost the bidding for Allergan, the company’s stock traded around $134; shares closed at nearly $245 on Wednesday night. Valeant paid nearly $16 billion for Salix earlier this year, and has also acquired Bausch & Lomb, Medicis, Dendreon and Egyptian drugmaker Amoun.
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As the first approved treatment of its kind, Addyi has an enormous first-mover advantage in the market. To capitalize on that advantage takes money, and Valeant has a lot more than Sprout.
And as we noted in our look at Sprout Wednesday, there is some opposition from women’s health groups to the drug, and the Wall Street Journal said that if the deal goes through, Valeant “would need to overcome concerns about the drug’s safety and effectiveness, as well as debate in the medical community about whether low sexual desire is a real condition.”
From Valeant’s point of view, it is a risk worth taking. A billion dollars, while real money, is nowhere near what the company has paid for other recent acquisitions. And if opponents succeed in killing demand for Addyi, the loss is manageable.
The reward could be huge. Pfizer earned well over $1 billion annually since between 2003 and 2014 on sales of Viagra, and those totals came against competing products from Eli Lilly and Bayer.
Valeant shares closed at $244.65 on Wednesday, down about 2.1%, in a 52-week range of $109.24 to $263.81. Shares were inactive in Thursday’s premarket trading.
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