NEW YORK, Oct 12 – Pfizer, the world\’s largest drug maker, said Tuesday it will buy King Pharmaceuticals for 3.6 billion dollars in a bid to boost its position in the pain-relief market.
Pfizer said it had struck a "definitive merger agreement" with King at 14.25 dollars per share, representing about a 40 percent premium to King\’s closing price on Monday.
The acquisition "will advance Pfizer\’s strategic objectives by strengthening its position within the rapidly growing pain-relief market," the companies said in a joint statement.
The deal was approved by the boards of both companies and was projected to add about two cents per Pfizer share in 2011 and 2012, rising to between three and four cents between 2013 and 2015, they said.
"This strategic combination will allow Pfizer to leverage its existing commercial capabilities and expertise to create one of the leading broad portfolios for pain relief and management in the biopharmaceutical industry, offering both currently marketed opioid and non-opioid products, as well as a pipeline spanning stages of clinical development," said the New York City-based Pfizer and King, headquartered in Bristol, Tennessee.
Jeffrey Kindler, Pfizer chairman and chief executive, said the tie-up in that area of "unmet medical need" was highly complementary.
The deal "will allow us to offer a fuller spectrum of treatments for patients across the globe who are in need of pain relief and management," he said.
