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Amgen to Buy Celgene’s Otezla for $13.4 Billion in Cash

By SMN.Today on August 26, 2019 • ( 15 )

◊ Amgen News Today ◊

♦ Amgen Buy Otezla ♦ Stock Market News ♦ … — Amgen Inc. said it has agreed to buy Celgene Corp. ’s psoriasis treatment Otezla for $13.4 billion in cash, in a deal that would pave the way for Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. to complete its acquisition of Celgene. Amgen said Monday the deal is worth about $11.2 billion, net of anticipated future cash tax benefits.

Bristol-Myers in January said it would acquire Celgene in a deal valued at about $74 billion, but the U.S. Federal Trade Commission raised anticompetitive concerns related to anti-inflammatory drugs. In June, the companies said they would shed Otezla to satisfy the FTC’s concerns.

Bristol-Myers on Monday said the sale of Otezla to Amgen is contingent on a consent decree with the FTC and completion of the Celgene acquisition, which the company now expects to occur by the end of the year.

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Amgen, a Thousand Oaks, Calif., biotechnology company, said Otezla is a strong strategic fit with its psoriasis and inflammation portfolio and it expects at least low-double-digit sales growth for the drug, on average, over the next five years.

Shares of Bristol-Myers rose 4.2% in morning trading. Celgene shares added 3.7% and Amgen climbed 2.1%. Amgen, which has been pressured recently by the introduction of copycats to its white blood cell booster Neulasta and calcium reducer Sensipar, saidOtezla has exclusivity through at least 2028 in the U.S.

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Bristol-Myers said it would use proceeds from the Otezla sale to pare its debt load, adding that it plans to focus on deleveraging in the near term to maintain strong investment-grade credit ratings and a ratio of debt to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of below 1.5-times by 2023.

The New York drugmaker also raised an accelerated share repurchase program, planned for after the Celgene deal closes, to $7 billion from $5 billion.

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Amgen Inc Company Profile:

Amgen Inc. is a biotechnology company. The Company discovers, develops, manufactures and delivers various human therapeutics. It operates in human therapeutics segment.

Its marketed products portfolio includes Neulasta (pegfilgrastim); erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs), such as Aranesp (darbepoetin alfa) and EPOGEN (epoetin alfa); Sensipar/Mimpara (cinacalcet); XGEVA (denosumab); Prolia (denosumab); NEUPOGEN (filgrastim), and other marketed products, such as KYPROLIS (carfilzomib), Vectibix (panitumumab), Nplate (romiplostim), Repatha (evolocumab), BLINCYTO (blinatumomab), IMLYGIC (talimogene laherparepvec) and Corlanor (ivabradine).

It focuses on human therapeutics for the treatment of serious illness in the areas of oncology/hematology, cardiovascular disease and neuroscience. Its product candidates in Phase III include Erenumab for episodic migraine, Aranesp for myelodysplastic syndromes, BLINCYTO for acute lymphoblastic leukemia and IMLYGIC for metastatic melanoma.