AstraZeneca shares fell on Tuesday after its spurned US suitor Pfizer walked away from a £69.4bn takeover attempt.
AstraZeneca has won the battle to stay independent, for now, after Pfizer conceded defeat hours before a deadline on Monday afternoon to turn its offer into a formal bid.
The New York-based maker of Viagra made a "take it or leave it" offer of £55 a share just over a week ago that, like its previous three offers, was promptly rejected.
AstraZeneca's shares have lost more than 10% of their value since talks collapsed, trading down 2.3% on the day to £42.27 on Tuesday. Financial markets in the UK and US were closed for a public holiday on Monday.
The firm's chief executive, Pascal Soriot, who has been in the job for 18 months, is now under intense pressure to deliver on the drug pipeline and prove that AstraZeneca can thrive as an independent company.
Several major shareholders, led by the world's largest asset management group, BlackRock, which is AstraZeneca's biggest investor with an 8% stake - as well as Pfizer's second-biggest shareholder – want the Anglo-Swedish firm to restart talks as soon as takeover rules allow.
It can invite Pfizer back to the table in late August, after a three-month cooling-off period, while Pfizer can return with a new, unsolicited offer in late November, after the obligatory six months have elapsed. Pfizer is under time pressure itself.
One of the main drivers of the proposed deal was that it would be able to save billions of dollars in tax by moving its headquarters to the UK.
Other US companies are also said to be hunting for deals that would enable them to embark on "tax inversion".
InterContinental Hotels reportedly turned down a £6bn bid from a US suitor recently, and some Democrat senators in Washington are pushing for legislation to make it harder for businesses to do make the move.
AstraZeneca's board, led by the chairman, Leif Johansson, had indicated that it would consider an offer of £58.85 a share, and is thought to have been surprised when Pfizer made its final offer of £55 a share on 18 May.
Pfizer thought this was high enough to tempt shareholders and spur them into pressuring the AstraZeneca board into talks.
Some AstraZeneca shareholders have called for management bonuses to be linked to Pfizer's offer price and AstraZeneca's new target of 75% growth in annual revenues to $45bn (£27bn) by 2023.
It faces two to three more years of falling sales as old drugs come off patent, but is counting on new medicines to achieve its goal over the next decade.
Soriot and his top scientists – chief medical officer, Briggs Morrison; the head of MedImmune and biologics research, Bahija Jallal; and the head of innovative medicines, Mene Pangalos – will fly to Chicago this week to showcase AstraZeneca's new cancer medicines at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual conference, which starts on Friday.
The highlights will be clinical data on two experimental treatments for lung cancer, AZD9291 and MEDI4736, which will be presented on Saturday and Tuesday respectively.
They form part of a new generation of drugs that harness the body's immune system to fight tumours, and could turn out to be moneyspinners worth $3bn and $6.5bn respectively at their peak.
Preliminary data shows that AZD9291, which has been granted "breakthrough" status in the US, shrank tumours in more than half of patients who had developed resistance to existing treatments.
MEDI4736 has been fast-tracked into late-stage clinical trials, and the Citigroup analyst Andrew Baum believes it could be a "best in class" treatment, despite intense competition from other drugmakers.
theguardian.com
AstraZeneca has won the battle to stay independent, for now, after Pfizer conceded defeat hours before a deadline on Monday afternoon to turn its offer into a formal bid.
The New York-based maker of Viagra made a "take it or leave it" offer of £55 a share just over a week ago that, like its previous three offers, was promptly rejected.
AstraZeneca's shares have lost more than 10% of their value since talks collapsed, trading down 2.3% on the day to £42.27 on Tuesday. Financial markets in the UK and US were closed for a public holiday on Monday.
The firm's chief executive, Pascal Soriot, who has been in the job for 18 months, is now under intense pressure to deliver on the drug pipeline and prove that AstraZeneca can thrive as an independent company.
Several major shareholders, led by the world's largest asset management group, BlackRock, which is AstraZeneca's biggest investor with an 8% stake - as well as Pfizer's second-biggest shareholder – want the Anglo-Swedish firm to restart talks as soon as takeover rules allow.
It can invite Pfizer back to the table in late August, after a three-month cooling-off period, while Pfizer can return with a new, unsolicited offer in late November, after the obligatory six months have elapsed. Pfizer is under time pressure itself.
One of the main drivers of the proposed deal was that it would be able to save billions of dollars in tax by moving its headquarters to the UK.
Other US companies are also said to be hunting for deals that would enable them to embark on "tax inversion".
InterContinental Hotels reportedly turned down a £6bn bid from a US suitor recently, and some Democrat senators in Washington are pushing for legislation to make it harder for businesses to do make the move.
AstraZeneca's board, led by the chairman, Leif Johansson, had indicated that it would consider an offer of £58.85 a share, and is thought to have been surprised when Pfizer made its final offer of £55 a share on 18 May.
Pfizer thought this was high enough to tempt shareholders and spur them into pressuring the AstraZeneca board into talks.
Some AstraZeneca shareholders have called for management bonuses to be linked to Pfizer's offer price and AstraZeneca's new target of 75% growth in annual revenues to $45bn (£27bn) by 2023.
It faces two to three more years of falling sales as old drugs come off patent, but is counting on new medicines to achieve its goal over the next decade.
Soriot and his top scientists – chief medical officer, Briggs Morrison; the head of MedImmune and biologics research, Bahija Jallal; and the head of innovative medicines, Mene Pangalos – will fly to Chicago this week to showcase AstraZeneca's new cancer medicines at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual conference, which starts on Friday.
The highlights will be clinical data on two experimental treatments for lung cancer, AZD9291 and MEDI4736, which will be presented on Saturday and Tuesday respectively.
They form part of a new generation of drugs that harness the body's immune system to fight tumours, and could turn out to be moneyspinners worth $3bn and $6.5bn respectively at their peak.
Preliminary data shows that AZD9291, which has been granted "breakthrough" status in the US, shrank tumours in more than half of patients who had developed resistance to existing treatments.
MEDI4736 has been fast-tracked into late-stage clinical trials, and the Citigroup analyst Andrew Baum believes it could be a "best in class" treatment, despite intense competition from other drugmakers.
theguardian.com
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