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Pharma giant Takeda Pharmaceutical is looking to begin 2019 with a bang – closing its $62 billion acquisition of Shire plc by Jan. 8.
This morning Takeda announced that it will hold an investor vote next month on the planned acquisition in order to swiftly move and finalize the deal – if the company has the necessary support of its investors. Shares of Takeda are up slightly in premarket trading on the news of the plan, a nice show of support after the company stock dropped 2 percent on Friday. Takeda said it will hold an Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders on Dec, 5 to vote on the acquisition. In order to finalize the acquisition, Takeda will need to secure two-thirds support from shareholders.
Christophe Weber, Takeda’s president and chief executive officer, said the acquisition of Shire is expected to accelerate the company’s strategic transformation in order to create a “stronger, more global and more competitive company with the financial strength to continue investing in delivering highly innovative medicines and transformative care to patients around the world.”
“With the date of our Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders now set, we are looking forward to continuing our dialogue with shareholders regarding the compelling strategic and financial benefits of this transaction,” Weber said in a statement.
Also today, Shire published its scheme document related to the acquisition and plans to also hold a shareholders meeting on Dec. 5, following Takeda’s EGM.
The $62 billion acquisition of Shire was first announced in May, two months after Takeda first expressed interest in the Dublin-based Shire. It took some time at the negotiation table for the two companies to come to an agreement, with a reported five different bids made by Takeda for Shire. When the deal was announced, Weber said Shire had a “highly complementary product portfolio and pipeline.” He said the combined companies would be a leader in providing targeted treatments in gastroenterology, neuroscience, oncology, rare diseases and plasma-derived therapies.
There are some areas where the two company’s pipelines will overlap. Takeda and Shire have held talks with European regulatory leaders regarding concern about the overlap in inflammatory bowel disease. Takeda said the agents specifically discussed Takeda’s marketed product Entyvio and Shire’s pipeline compound SHP647, which is currently in Phase III clinical trials. Takeda said it offered commitments to divest SHP647 and certain associated rights in exchange for the European Commission granting a Phase I conditional clearance for the acquisition of Shire. Takeda and Shire have secured approval for the deal from regulators in the United States, Japan, China and Brazil.
Shire’s SHP647 may not be the only asset that could be sold. In September, Takeda was reportedly considering the sale of Shire’s eye-care business in order to cut some debt incurred. If that occurred, Takeda could pick up a few billion dollars to help pay down debt.
Finalizing the acquisition won’t be easy though, as there has been some opposition to the deal from within the ranks of the Takeda family. A group of shareholders, which has dubbed themselves Thinking about Takeda’s Bright Future (TTBF), have been opposed to the deal. Kazu Takeda, one of the descendants of the founders of the 237-year-old Japanese company, has become the voice of TTBF.
Following the closing of the deal to acquire Shire, Takeda said it will continue to focus on the acceleration of its oncology business, following the 2017 acquisition of ARIAD Pharmaceuticals.
Source: Biospace
