OSI Pharmaceuticals didn’t allow recent news from Genentech, which is developing a possible rival product, to spoil its planned takeover of eye-treatment firm Eyetech.
OSI said it acquired the company for about $685 million in cash and about 5.7 million shares of OSI common stock. The net value of the acquisition is about $650 million, after Eyetech’s cash and net operating losses are factored in, OSI said.
Over the summer, Eyetech, whose sole product Macugen treats the wet form of age-related macular degeneration, agreed to sell itself for about $935 million. That deal had placed a
value on Eyetech of $20 a share. But last week OSI worried investors by saying it wanted extra time, prior to closing the buyout, to assess data from a Phase III trial of Genentech’s experimental drug Lucentis (ranibizumab), also for wet age-related macular degeneration. In the trial,
the drug met its primary goal of maintaining vision in patients with the disease.
OSI released a statement over the weekend signaling its readiness to move ahead with the takeover.