Barr Pharmaceuticals (BRL) Quote

>Based on Barr's 108.1 million shares outstanding at April 28, the deal is valued at $7.19 billion before assumed debt. In a statement, the companies valued the deal at $7.46 billion before debt.<

The discrepancy stems from BRL’s employee stock options that become in-the-money at the buyout price.

Teva to buy Barr Pharma for more than $7 billion
Friday July 18, 8:12 am ET
Teva to pay more than $7 billion for Barr Pharma, in move to boost US, Europe presence
another buyout, dropping MOD position
NEW YORK (AP) -- Israeli drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical said Friday it will buy rival generic drug company Barr Pharmaceuticals for more than $7 billion in a move to expand its presence in U.S. and Eastern European markets.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. also is offering to assume $1.5 billion of Montvale, N.J.-based Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s debt.

Barr shareholders will receive $39.90 in cash and 0.6272 of a Teva American Depositary Receipt for each share they own, or a total purchase price of $66.50 per share. That represents a 16 percent premium to Barr's $57.17 closing price Thursday.

Barr shares finished at $46.82 Wednesday, before reports that a deal was in the works sent the stock climbing 22 percent.

Already the largest generic drug maker in the world, Teva reported $9.4 billion in sales in 2007. Barr posted $2.5 billion in revenue, and the company describes itself as the largest maker of oral contraceptives in the U.S. It began selling a generic version of Bayer AG's birth-control pill Yasmin in the U.S. in July.

Barr also has the rights to sell a generic version of the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder drug Adderall XR starting April 1, 2009.

The deal will give Teva a larger presence in Central and Eastern Europe, where Barr already has a footprint because of its 2006 purchase of Pliva, a Croatian drug maker.

Based on Barr's 108.1 million shares outstanding at April 28, the deal is valued at $7.19 billion before assumed debt. In a statement, the companies valued the deal at $7.46 billion before debt.

Barr stock jumped $3.82, or 6.7 percent, to $60.99 in premarket trading, which put the shares on pace for their highest opening in more than two years. Teva's ADRs gave up $1.50, or 3.7 percent, to $39.55, which would be an annual low for the stock.





surf's up......crikey

Teva in talks to buy Barr at up to $7.5 bln
By Robert Daniel, MarketWatch
Last update: 11:00 a.m. EDT July 17, 2008
TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., the Israeli drugmaker, is in talks to buy Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. for as much as $7.5 billion, according to published reports.
That figure would be a nearly 50% premium for the Montvale, N.J., producer of generic and proprietary pharmaceuticals.

Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc

BRL 54.81, +7.99, +17.1%) soared 14% to $53.40 in morning trading. Teva investors were less enthused with the news, pushing down shares a point to $42.05.
Reports of the negotiations appeared in the Israeli dailies Globes and Ha'aretz.
A spokeswoman for Teva (TEVA:

TEVA 41.61, -0.80, -1.9%) wasn't immediately available for comment. The company told the Israeli daily Globes that it does not respond to market speculation.
If the deal goes through, it would be Teva's second major buy of a U.S. generics company in recent years. In 2005, Teva bought Miami-based Ivax Corp. for $7.4 billion. The deal transformed Teva into the world's largest generics maker.
Teva has been busy on the M&A front in 2008 as well. In March, the company said it agreed to acquire Bentley Pharmaceuticals Inc.,

BNT 14.80, -0.01, -0.1%) the Exeter, N.H. drugmaker with a strong presence in Spain.
In addition to marketing generic drugs, Teva also sells Copaxone, a leading treatment for multiple sclerosis. The drug took in $1.7 billion in sales last year.

MNTA 14.32, -0.24, -1.6%) filed an application with the Food and Drug Administration to market a generic version of Copaxone, a first step in what could be a long legal battle for the companies.
Teva responded that it plans to sue Novartis and Momenta for patent infringement, which would essentially put generic Copaxone on hold until the case is resolved. Teva maintains its patents on Copaxone are valid until May 2014.
And in January, the company announced a deal to buy closely-held CoGenesys Inc., which has a biotechnology platform and develops peptide- and protein-based medications.
In a note dated Wednesday, UBS analyst Ricky Goldwasser saw several strategic reasons for Teva to do the deal including giving Teva access to the oral-contraceptive market, adding to its list of potential drug-patent challenges, strengthening the Israeli firm's presence in Central and Eastern Europe and providing efficiencies by eliminating duplicate infrastructure in the U.S.
Excellence Nessuah, an Israeli investment bank, said in a morning note that Teva had net debt on its balance sheet at March 31 of $2.1 billion.
"A potential deal of this size would clearly entail raising more debt and a large equity payment," the firm said. "Investors should also expect post-acquisition write-offs that will likely detract from investors' sentiment."
The firm added that BRL, through the acquisition of Plivia in 2006, "is particularly active in Germany, Croatia, Russia and Poland -- all growth areas where Teva is planning to invest in the coming years." End of Story
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/teva-reportedly-talks-buy-barr/story.aspx?guid=%7B6883A00B%2D1C0C%2D4EF7%2D8EFF%2D52694743F786%7D&siteid=yhoof



surf's up......crikey

Doctors may soon prescribe addictive drugs online
Thursday June 19, 6:14 pm ET
By Matthew Perrone, AP Business Writer
Regulators may soon allow online prescribing of highly addictive medications

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Government regulators said Thursday they are preparing to allow highly addictive medications, including powerful painkillers, to be prescribed online, a goal long-sought by health insurers and large employers.

Under current government rules, doctors are required to write out by hand prescriptions for controlled substances, which include attention-deficit disorder drugs like Shire Pharmaceuticals' Adderall and painkillers like Cephalon Inc.'s Fentora.

The concern is that patients are more likely to abuse these treatments, and their prescriptions should be monitored more closely.

The Drug Enforcement Agency will soon publish a proposal that would allow doctors to prescribe such drugs electronically, according to agency spokeswoman Rogene Waite. The agency will take comments on the proposal before reworking it and establishing a final rule.

Waite declined to discuss which individual drug classes would be affected by the change, noting the rule is not yet public.

Insurers and large employers like Wal-Mart have all lobbied to allow electronic prescribing of the controlled drugs. They argue that online prescriptions are an easy way to avoid deadly medication errors and reduce health care costs.

By paving the way for electronic prescribing of widely used controlled substances, experts expect that more doctors will be willing to embrace the technology.

Improving the nation's health information technology has become a rallying cry in Washington and on the campaign trail in recent years, but with few concrete results. Analysts say electronic prescribing may be able to break that trend thanks to its broad appeal within the Bush administration, Democrats in Congress and the private sector.

Congress is expected to vote this month on a Medicare bill that will include incentives and penalties to encourage doctors to prescribe electronically.

Generic drugmakers like Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. and prescribing software makers like Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc. are among the companies that have thrown their support behind the effort.

Barr gets FDA approval for generic contraceptive
Friday May 9, 3:58 pm ET
Barr Pharmaceuticals gets FDA approval for generic contraceptive as patent dispute continues

MONTVALE, N.J. (AP) -- Drug developer Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Friday the Food and Drug Administration granted final approval for its generic version of Bayer's oral contraceptive Yasmin.

In March, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey ruled in favor of Barr and found Bayer's patent on the drug invalid. Bayer has appealed the ruling in the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Bayer is also suing Watson Pharmaceuticals and Sandoz over their applications to market a generic version of Yasmin.

Shares of Barr rose 96 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $39.06 in afternoon trading. The stock has traded between $37.40 and $58.38 over the last 52 weeks.