Teva bids $40bn for Mylan

Pharmaceutical company Teva has offered to buy fellow drug maker Mylan in a deal that could be worth $40 billion.

In the proposal, confirmed yesterday (April 21), Teva offered Mylan $82 per share.

Last week, Mylan’s executive chairman Robert Coury  dismissed rumours of a merger with Israel-based Teva.

He said at the time: “Such a combination is without sound industrial logic or cultural fit”.

Earlier this month, Mylan made a bid of nearly $30 billion to buy Irish consumer pharma company Perrigo. That offer was rejected yesterday.

Teva described its offer as a “more attractive alternative for Mylan stockholders than Mylan’s proposed acquisition of Perrigo”.

It said that a combination of the companies could “transform the global generics space”, and could have annual revenues of $30 billion.

The combined company would be able to focus on “more complex, hard-to-produce durable products”, Teva added.

Teva said that if it were to join forces with Mylan the two companies would have a combined pipeline of more than 400 pending Abbreviated New Drug Applications in the US.

Erez Vigodman, Teva’s president and chief executive, said: “Our companies share years of experience and success leading the generic industry and building strong presences in specialty and biologics.

“Mylan’s business is a natural fit with our own and is highly complementary to it.”

Mylan did not respond to a request for comment.