By Kevin McCauley
Sard Verbinnen & Co is working media for Montreal-headquartered Valeant Pharmaceuticals $2.6B bid for Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp., the Scottsdale-Ariz. based U.S. leader in the dermatology drug market.
The $44 per-share offer represents a 39 percent premium to the August 31 Big Board closing price of Medicis’ stock.
Michael Pearson, CEO of Canada’s biggest publicly traded drug house, expects the merger to result in an annual $225M cost savings.
He promises the combined $1.7B dermatology unit will be based in Scottsdale and operate under the Medicis name, once the deal is approved during the first half of next year.
Medicis acquired the dermatology units of Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi last year, but fell short in a $5.7B bid for specialty drug maker Cephalon.
SV&C VP Sarah Brown, managing director Renee Soto and VP Jared Levy handle media for the Valeant/Medicis transaction. |