Actelion talks to new party reported to be Sanofi as J J drops bid

Switzerland's Actelion Ltd (ATLN.S) confirmed it was in talks about a "strategic transaction", with a report that Sanofi (SASY.PA) had filled the gap left after U.S. healthcare group Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) ended its takeover bid.

Actelion's shares were indicated 3.7 percent lower on Wednesday after The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said France's Sanofi was now in talks with Europe's largest biotechnology drug marker.

The WSJ reported that it was not clear what price Sanofi was discussing or what structure might be involved, but said a deal could value Actelion at as much as $30 billion.

The Swiss company, which was founded by its chief executive Jean-Paul Clozel in 1997, did not name the party it was now in discussions with and a spokesman declined further comment.

Analysts have previously identified Sanofi as a potential buyer for Actelion, whose portfolio would supplement the French drugmaker's Genzyme rare disease unit. Sanofi declined to comment on the WSJ report.

Actelion informed Johnson & Johnson that it was confident tủ bếp gỗ tại hà nội it could attract an offer significantly higher than the approximately 250 Swiss francs per share that the U.S. company had offered, according to a person familiar with the matter.

There were also disagreements about the structure of the deal, the person added.

Actelion shares closed at 208.50 Swiss francs on Tuesday before the company gave the update on the talks, giving it a market capitalization of 22.5 billion Swiss francs ($22.2 billion).

Acquiring lung disease specialist Actelion would have boosted J&J's drug pipeline and given it more pricing power, at a time when its popular arthritis drug Remicade faces cheaper competition from Pfizer Inc (PFE.N).

Clozel and his wife, Chief Scientific Officer Martine Clozel, have built up a world-leading drug portfolio at Actelion to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension. They aim to expand in drugs for multiple sclerosis and clostridium difficile, but regulatory approvals for those are years away.

The company is also counting on its new pulmonary arterial hypertension treatments Opsumit and Uptravi, which combined are forecast to bring in nearly 4.5 billion francs in annual sales by 2020.

Clozel has faced pressure from some shareholders to do a deal. Five years ago, he successfully defended against an effort by activist hedge fund Elliott Management to put Actelion up for sale, questioning his strategy.



(Additional reporting by Ismail Shakil and Diptendu Lahiri in Bengaluru, Matthias Blamont in Paris; Editing by Bernard Orr, Lisa Shumaker and Alexander Smith)