Valeant Pharmaceuticals International has won the day with its bid of $400 million to buy bankrupt Dendreon Corp and its prostate cancer vaccine Provenge.
Dendreon filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November battered by the failure of Provenge (sipuleucel-T), which cost $93,000 for a course of treatment, to make a dent in the prostate cancer markets. The arrival of more conventional but highly-effective treatments – notably Johnson & Johnson’s Zytiga (abiraterone) and Medivation and Astellas’ Xtandi (enzalutamide) eventually led to the bankruptcy court.
At the end of last month, Valeant bid $296 million, acting as a stalking house for a potential auction, then raised it to $400 million “in response to competing bids”. The deadline for other offers has now passed so Valeant is getting Provenge which had sales of around $300 million last year.
