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Print Edition StoriesFriday, December 4, 2009
Biogen increases bid for Facet
By Mass High Tech staff
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Biogen Idec Inc. has made a new gambit in its three-month-old hostile takeover bid for California-based Facet Biotech Corp., which has partnered with Biogen since 2005 on joint development of a Multiple Sclerosis drug target and a treatment for solid tumors.
Biogen (Nasdaq: BIIB) on Thursday increased its all-cash offer to purchase all outstanding shares of Facet (Nasdaq: FACT) by $3 per share to $17.50, calling the new figure its best and final offer. Biogen, which launched its bid for Facet on September 4, made the offer in an open letter to Facet stockholders. Facet stock closed at $17.23 on Thursday. Biogen’s original offer was $14.50 per share.
Facet’s board of directors responded to the latest offer by advising stockholders to take no action on Biogen’s bid.
Biogen said its offer expires at 12:00 a.m. EST on Dec. 16, and told Facet stockholders that if the deal falls through, those stockholders will continue to face risk, which the companies share at 50 percent each, in the continued development of the two joint projects. Biogen also argued that Facet’s burn rate positions it to run out of cash in 2012 before the completion of trials on the MS drug target daclizumab, and that if Facet raises more cash through another investment the move would be dilutive to the stockholders.
The two companies have been jointly developing daclizumab and another drug candidate called volociximab to treat solid tumors.
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