Horizon Pharma upped its unsolicited bid for Depomed earlier this week laying around $2 billion on the table for the pain focused group.
The all-stock transaction is now valued at $33.00 per share, up from the $29.25 per share offered back in May, PharmaTimes has learned from legal firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, which is representing Depomed.
But Depomed is urging its shareholders to take no action in response to the revised offer until it is reviewed by the company’s directors.
Also, it noted that the offer does not reflect any increase in Horizon stock Depomed shareholders would receive, but is ‘merely’ the result of the Horizon’s trading stock gaining in value.
A merger between the two companies would create a portfolio of 13 marketed medicines, nearly doubling Horizon’s current portfolio, with more than 700 sales representatives in Primary Care, Orphan and Specialty business units, and projected full-year pro forma 2015 net sales in excess of $950 million.
“The strategic and financial benefits of our proposal are highly compelling,” Timothy Walbert, Horizon’s chairman, president and chief executive, has stressed in the past.
But in response to Horizon’s initial approach, Depomed’s board of directors “unanimously determined” that Horizon’s proposal is not in the best interests of the company, insisting that “continuing to execute on its strategic plan is the best path forward”.
