Tech Dealmaker Awards

In October of last year, Cambridge-based biotech Genzyme Corp. announced it would acquire a relatively small Canadian drug maker, called AnorMed. The value of the deal was approximately $580 million, $65 million more than its cross-town rival Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. had offered just a month before.

The bidding war for AnorMed was centered on the potential of a single experimental drug called Mozobil, a drug that helps increase the number of stem cells collected in a patient’s blood before being transplanted back into the body after chemotherapy.

According to Paula Soteropoulos, vice president of global strategic marketing for Genzyme’s transplant group, the company felt strongly the drug would fit well with its transplant franchise, led by the anti-rejection product Thymoglobulin. At the time, Genzyme didn’t have a drug approved as a conditioning regime in the United States and also looked at Mozobil as fulfilling an unmet medical need of sorts.

“We have a lot of patients that never get to transplant, and Mozobil helps them get there. It helps increase the chances that they will even get to receive (stem cell) treatment. And we really do feel we are in the best position to develop this product and get it to patients,” said Soteropoulos.

And Genzyme continues to make big deals happen. In October 2007, the drug maker finally sealed another drawn-out and tumultuous acquisition with the purchase of Bioenvision Inc. for approximately $345 million.

— Stephen Desantis is a freelance writer in Roxbury.

Category

Top Life Sciences M&A Deals Buy Side

The Deal

Genzyme Corp. acquires AnorMed Inc. out from under Millennium Pharmaceuticals for $580 million. Closed as of Nov. 7, 2006.

Key Executives

Henri A. Termeer, CEO and chairman; Peter Wirth, chief legal officer; Michael Wyzga, chief financial and accounting officer; Georges Gemayel, executive vice president, therapeutics.Ropes & Gray LLP; Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP; Sullivan & Cromwell LLP (AnorMed); Dorsey & Whitney LLP (AnorMed); Farris, Vaughan, Wills & Murphy (AnorMed).

Deal advisers

Legal: Wyatt Tarrant & Combs; Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo PC (Finisar).

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