BioCentury
ARTICLE | Company News

Astex Pharmaceuticals, Otsuka Pharmaceutical deal

September 9, 2013 7:00 AM UTC

Otsuka will acquire Astex for $8.50 per share in cash, or about $866 million. The price is a 27% premium to Astex's close of $6.68 on Sept. 3, before rumors surfaced that Otsuka was acquiring Astex for ¥90 billion ($913.5 million). The boards of both companies unanimously approved the deal, which is expected to close by early 4Q13.

Otsuka will gain Astex's Pyramid fragment based screening technology and said the deal also will strengthen the pharma's oncology portfolio. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ, New Brunswick, N.J.) and Eisai Co. Ltd. (Tokyo:4523; Osaka:4523, Tokyo, Japan) market Astex's myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) drug Dacogen decitabine. Astex's cancer pipeline also includes SG-110, a second-generation version of Dacogen in Phase II testing for MDS, acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), ovarian and liver cancer; and AT13387, a non-ansamycin inhibitor of heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90) in Phase II testing for gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST), prostate and lung cancers. Otsuka markets Busulfex busulfan as a conditioning regimen prior to allogeneic hematopoietic progenitor cell transplantation for chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), and the pharma also markets leukemia drug Sprycel dasatinib with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY, New York, N.Y.) in the U.S., EU and Japan. Astex reported $83.2 million in revenues for 2012. Parent Company Otsuka Holdings Co. Ltd. (Tokyo:4578, Tokyo, Japan) reported FY2012 sales of ¥850.9 billion ($10.3 billion) by the pharmaceutical business segment, which includes Otsuka Pharmaceuticals as well as other subsidiaries. ...