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Reuters reports French drug maker
Sanofi-Aventis has agreed to buy the consumer health care company Chattem for
about $1.9 billion, in a deal that will give Sanofi an over-the-counter presence
in the United States. Sanofi said in a statement that it would start a tender
offer for all of Chattem’s shares at $93.50 a share in cash. The Paris-based
group said the offer represented a 34 percent premium above Chattem’s the most
recent closing share price. Sanofi added that the transaction was valued at
about $1.9 billion and had been backed by Chattem’s directors. Chattem, which
was founded more than 100 years ago and is based in Chattanooga, Tenn., makes
and sells household and personal care products like over-the-counter drugs,
cosmetics and dietary supplements. Its products include Selsun Blue dandruff
shampoo, Cortizone-10, Gold Bond skin care creams and Icy Hot pain relief
medicine. “The acquisition of Chattem will be a significant milestone in
Sanofi-Aventis’s transformation strategy and will provide us with the ideal
platform in the U.S. consumer health care market, which represents 25 percent
of the current worldwide opportunity,” Sanofi’s chief executive, Christopher A.
Viehbacher, said in a statement. The deal fits with Sanofi’s plan to broaden
the business away from prescription drugs, aiming to offset looming sales
losses of older drugs as a result of generic competition and new branded
rivals. The French group has looked to partnership deals to find new drugs and
takeovers of up to 15 billion euros or $21.5 billion, rather than pursuing
mega-mergers — a tactic preferred by rivals like Pfizer and Merck.
