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AbbVie spells out Shire benefits

pharmafile | June 26, 2014 | News story | Sales and Marketing ADHD, AbbVie, Abbott, Humira, Shire, merger 

AbbVie has spelt out exactly why it believes that Shire should accept its $46.5 billion bid.

The US firm wants to acquire the Ireland-based biopharma specialist in a deal that could shore up the former’s long-term growth prospects.

To make its case, it has released a series of documents to investors and analysts explaining why the combination would be ‘strategically compelling’ for both companies.

AbbVie’s initial cash and share proposal – £39.50 for each Shire share – came in early May this year while its third, this month, raised its bid to £46.26 – but Shire’s board has been implacable in its refusals so far.

In short, AbbVie – which became a standalone company itself in 2012 after it split from Abbott – says its acquisition would give Shire more value than it will find navigating the choppy waters of international pharma on its own.

It would “create a larger and more diversified biopharmaceutical company with multiple leading franchises and significant financial capacity for future acquisitions, investment and enhanced shareholder distributions and value creation”, AbbVie insists. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the tenor of the message to Shire’s shareholders is that they are looking at a win-win situation if they allow AbbVie to put its plan into operation.

“AbbVie is offering Shire shareholders compelling immediate value with significant future upside potential from ownership in ‘new AbbVie’ that AbbVie expects will create long-term value,” it insists.

Throw in AbbVie’s global resources (giving Shire ‘the desired scale and infrastructure’) and “highly experienced management team with its strong track record of shareholder value creation” and the US firm hopes its case is compelling.

What AbbVie does not emphasise is that Shire’s portfolio of ADHD treatments and expensive rare disorder medicines could help shake off its reliance on Humira (adalimumab).

The autoimmune drug is the biggest-selling in the world, pulling in $10.7 billion in sales last year and making up 57% of AbbVie’s total sales for 2013.

Instead, AbbVie says Shire’s platform ‘has a strong complementary fit’ in terms of “physician access relationships, regulatory and market access capabilities, and patient-centric focus”.

The deal would “accelerate growth of both companies through multiple catalysts”, says AbbVie, making Shire’s pipeline and products “more successful than its standalone prospects”.

The US company believes that a combined entity could gain “incremental sustainable leadership positions within high value market segments of significant unmet need”, including immunology, rare diseases, neuroscience, metabolic diseases, liver disease and cancer.

Adam Hill

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