Astrazeneca bolsters bid defence with asthma drug deal
Astrazeneca boss Pascal Soriot moved on to the front foot today with a deal worth up to $2.1 billion (£1.24 billion) to boost the pharmaceutical giant’s drugs pipeline two months after fending off Pfizer’s £69 billion embrace.
Astra is buying the rights to Spanish group Almirall’s asthma drugs, paying $875 million up-front and up to $1.22 billion more if the drugs meet development and sales targets.
The move bolsters Astra’s drugs cabinet of respiratory treatments including Symbicort — competing strongly against GlaxoSmithKline’s Advair — as well as advancing Soriot’s argument that the UK giant has a strong independent future.
Soriot, right, said the move brought “strategic and long-term value … to one of our key growth platforms”.
Edison Investment Research analyst Mick Cooper added: “This is a smart deal by AstraZeneca. Its respiratory franchise has considerable momentum at the moment and this agreement fills in the gaps in the portfolio.”
A “significant” number of the Barcelona-based Almirall’s 3000 staff will transfer to Astra under the deal.
Astra shares added 31.75p to 4354.25p today, still well short of Pfizer’s final £55 cash and shares approach tabled in May.
The deal comes ahead of Astra’s quarterly results tomorrow, which are expected to show a slight fall in year-on-year sales to $6.3 billion.
Panmure Gordon’s Savvas Neophytou said: “The results will provide the first opportunity since the aborted bid by Pfizer for management to demonstrate the progress it has been making.”
Pfizer — which wanted to take over Astra to generate huge tax savings — has refused to rule out a renewed tilt at the UK firm. Under Takeover Panel rules it could launch another bid in November.
