PIXABAY, CLKERFREEVECTORIMAGESGeneric drug giant Teva Pharmaceutical will acquire Allergan’s generics division in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $40.5 billion, Teva announced today (July 27). Separately Allergan yesterday (July 26) announced that it will acquire Naurex, a firm developing treatments for depression among other things, in a $560 million all-cash deal.

The acquisition of Allergan Generics “delivers on Teva’s strategic objectives in both generics and specialty,” Teva President and CEO Erez Vigodman said in his firm’s statement. “Our respective portfolios of generic medicines and applications are highly complementary, providing Teva with high quality growth and earnings visibility and the scale and resources to expand upon our specialty capabilities.”

Allergan President and CEO Brent Saunders said that while his company was not actively seeking offers to divest its generics unit, Teva made an offer the company couldn’t refuse. (In April, Teva made a failed $40 billion bid for generic drugmaker...

Of his company’s purchase of central nervous system drug-developer Naurex, Saunders said in a statement: “We expect Naurex will enhance Allergan’s mental health portfolio and build on our strategy to lead in this important therapeutic area.”

Naurex, based in Evanston, Illinois, has one Phase-3-ready treatment and two drugs being studied in ongoing Phase 2 trials, among other compounds in development, according to its website. “This transaction . . . enables us to leverage our proven team and technology to continue innovating in this space through the spin-out of Naurex’s platform and initiation of a research collaboration with Allergan, a credible and committed partner in the field,” Norbert Riedel, Naurex’s president and CEO, said in a statement.

“Large pharmaceutical makers have engaged in a wide variety of deals in recent years to increase their scale, giving them greater negotiating power with health insurers and medical providers,” The New York Times’s Dealbook noted. “Pharmaceutical companies have also pursued acquisitions in order to gain access to new drugs in late-stage development, providing new treatments without having to engage in the lengthy and often expensive research and development process.”

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