Abbott to pay $450 million for Facet Biotech

Abbott Laboratories, maker of the arthritis medicine Humira, succeeded in its bid for Facet Biotech Corp. by offering 54 percent more than Biogen Idec Inc. in its rejected takeover effort.

The drugmaker agreed to buy Facet, maker of experimental medicines in cancer and immunology, for $27 a share in cash, or a net $450 million, the companies said yesterday in a statement. The price is a 67 percent premium over Redwood City, California- based Facet's closing share value yesterday in Nasdaq trading.

Facet last year turned down an unsolicited bid from partner Biogen, saying the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company's $17.50-a-share offer was "inadequate." The bid by Abbott Park-based Abbott amounts to $722 million before subtracting Facet's $272 million in projected cash and marketable securities, the companies said.

"It's a good deal because Abbott gets half the worldwide rights to a potential blockbuster drug in the immunotherapy market," Michael King, an analyst with Merriman Curhan Ford & Co., said yesterday in a telephone interview, referring to the experimental multiple sclerosis medicine daclizumab. "It's a perfect fit."

Facet has five experimental products led by daclizumab, which it's developing with Biogen. The company also is working on three cancer medicines and a therapy for immunologic diseases.

Abbott rose 14 cents to $54.94 at 9:55 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares gained 17 percent in the past 12 months before today. Facet jumped $10.72, or 66 percent, to $26.93 in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading, the shares' biggest intraday gain since September when Biogen made its bid.

'Smart Acquisitions'"Abbott is a plotter and a planner, and they tend to make smart acquisitions," Phillip Nalbone, an analyst with Wedbush Securities, said yesterday in a telephone interview. "This is right in their power alley -- immunology and oncology. The pipeline makes sense."Boards of both companies have approved the deal, which is expected to close in the second quarter, the companies said.Biogen, the world's biggest maker of multiple sclerosis drugs, offered $14.50 a share for Facet in September, and boosted its bid to $17.50 three months later, calling it the "best and final offer."Facet shareholders didn't tender a majority of the stock in support of Biogen's bid, and Biogen said it was "moving on." Facet said at the time it had entered into confidentiality agreements with other potential buyers and had asked its financial advisers, Centerview Partners LLC, to seek parties other than Biogen.Merriman analyst King said then that Biogen would need to raise its bid to at least $22 to succeed."We've been saying $22 to $25 a share. I think $27 is more than fair," King said yesterday. "Biogen will just have to get along with Abbott."