Abbott Laboratories to acquire Facet Biotech for $450 million

Diversified pharmaceuticals manufacturer Abbott Laboratories announced yesterday that it has agreed to buy biotechnology company Facet Biotech Corporation for $450 million in cash, in a move aimed at adding immunology and oncology products to its pipeline.

North Chicago, Illinois-based Abbott will pay $27 per Facet share, a premium of 67 per cent to its closing price of $16.21 on Tuesday or a net transaction value of approximately $450 million, which includes a purchase price of approximately $722 million, less Facet's projected cash and marketable securities at closing of approximately $272 million.

The $27 per share offer by Abbott to Facet is superior to the $14.50 per share hostile bid for Facet made by the world's biggest maker of multiple sclerosis drugs, Biogen Idec Inc. in September 2009, which the board of Facet had rejected, terming the offer as ''inadequate.'' (See: Facet Biotech spurns Biogen's buyout bid)

This time, both Abbott's and Facet's boards of directors have approved the deal, which is expected to close in the second quarter.

Redwood, California-based Facet is a biotechnology company dedicated to advancing its four clinical-stage products, identification and development of new oncology drugs and improvement in the clinical performance of protein therapeutics.

Facet's products include Daclizumab for multiple sclerosis and Volociximab for solid tumors (phase 2 clinical) Elotuzumab for multiple myeloma and PDL192 for solid tumors (phase 1 clinical), and PDL241 for immunological diseases (pre-clinical stage).