The total value of the transaction could be nearly $24 billion, including debt and future payouts.
The purchase also includes a 35-day period where Walgreens can solicit additional proposals. But given the deal’s potential size and complexity, a competing bid likely wouldn’t be successful, Leerink Partners analysts said in a Thursday note.
Rumors of the Sycamore sale, which could end Walgreens’ nearly 100-year run as a public company, have been circulating for months.
The deal isn’t surprising, given that Walgreens’ core retail pharmacy business is in “drastic need of changes” that would be challenging to undertake on the public markets, according to a Thursday note by TD Cowen analysts Charles Rhyee and Lucas Romanski.
The company’s share price has plummeted over the past decade as Walgreens faces lower prescription reimbursements and heightened retail competition. In first quarter results released in January, Walgreens reported an operating loss of $245 million compared to a loss of $39 million in the prior-year period.
by Emily Olsen
Source: biopharmadive.com
At its sprawling complex in Durham, N.C., Merck has opened a new $1 billion, 225,000-square-foot manufacturing plant slated to produce bulk substance for its megablockbuster HPV vaccine Gardasil. Merck built the new plant on the 262-acre campus it has occupied since 2004, where the pharma giant produces a variety of vaccines including shots to prevent chickenpox, measles and rubella.
Indian generic drug maker Sun Pharma agreed to acquire US immunotherapy and targeted oncology company Checkpoint Therapeutics for an upfront value of $355 million. The transaction is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2025 and is subject to customary closing conditions.
Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals and Endo have agreed to merge in a $6.7bn deal, combining two pharmaceutical companies that recently emerged from bankruptcy proceedings tied to opioid litigation. According to the 13 March announcement, the merger will create a “larger, more diversified entity”.
