U.S. biotech company Amgen to buy Turkish drugmaker

PanARMENIAN.Net - U.S. biotech company Amgen is to buy Turkey's Mustafa Nevzat Pharmaceuticals, a maker of injectable generic drugs, for around $700 million in a deal underscoring Western drugmakers' thirst for emerging markets sales, Reuters reported.

The purchase, announced by both companies on Wednesday, April 25, is the latest in a string of acquisitions by international drug companies - both at home and abroad - as they try to buy growth to offset patent expiries and price cuts.

Sales of pharmaceuticals are growing faster in emerging markets than in Europe and the United States, making them attractive to companies like Amgen.

Later on Wednesday, Watson Pharmaceuticals is expected to announce a deal to buy Swiss-based Actavis for around $6 billion, helping it compete against larger rivals and also increasing its exposure to emerging markets.

At the same time, companies like GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca are stepping up their drive to acquire smaller biotechnology companies with promising new drugs to improve their pipelines of high-priced patented medicines.

Under the all-cash agreement between Amgen and MN Pharma, Amgen will acquire 95.6 percent of the shares in the privately held Turkish company for an amount that values MN Pharma at $700 million.

People familiar with the situation said Amgen competed with a number of rivals to acquire the Istanbul-based firm, although Britain's GlaxoSmithKline - seen at one stage seen as a strong contender - was not interested in the end.

MN Pharma is the leading supplier of drugs to the hospital sector in Turkey and a major supplier of injectable products. It also has a fast-growing export business.

MN Pharma said in a statement that revenue totaled around $200 million in 2011 and it had been growing on average at more than 10 percent a year in local currency over the past five years.