Kyowa to buy ProStrakan to gain beachhead in EU, U.S.

Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co. Ltd. (Tokyo:4151) will acquire ProStrakan Group plc (LSE:PSK) for 130p per share, or about L292 million ($474 million) in cash. The price is a 20% premium to ProStrakan's close of 108.90p on Friday, before the deal was announced. Kyowa said the acquisition will provide an established EU and U.S. sales force. It also will gain ProStrakan's specialty pharmaceutical products, including pain drug Abstral fentanyl. ProStrakan, which has rights to the sublingual mucoadhesive fentanyl in North America and Europe from Orexo AB (SSE:ORX), plans to launch the product in the U.S. this quarter. In January, ProStrakan said it expected 2010 revenue of L100 million ($154.9 million). ...