Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) yesterday closed its $15 billion acquisition of Hospira, its largest-ever buyout, expanding its portfolio of generic injectable drugs and copies of biotech medicines.
Hospira makes generic versions of injectable drugs used in hospitals, pumps to deliver such medicine and also sells biosimilars or copies of biotech drugs. Pfizer paid $90 per share in cash, a 39% premium to Hospira’s closing stock price the day before the February bid.
It’s Pfizer’s largest acquisition since the New York-based company failed to snare AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN), which rebuffed a $118 billion approach last year but is still a subject of takeover speculation. To satisfy U.S. anti-trust regulators, Pfizer agreed to sell off its Acetylcysteine, Clindamycin, Voriconazole and Melphalan sterile injectable assets.
The deal accelerates Pfizer along the path to the U.S. biosimilars market. Lake Forest, Ill.-based Hospira is seeking approval from the FDA to market a biosimilar of Johnson & Johnson‘s (NYSE:JNJ) blockbuster arthritis treatment Remicade.
