After having its first offer rejected by ISTA Pharmaceuticals, and after ISTA indicated that an increased offer was still insufficient, Valeant Pharmaceuticals has withdrawn its offer of $7.50 per share a day before its announced deadline of January 31, 2012. ISTA has several bepotastine nasal sprays in development for the treatment of allergic rhinitis.
Valeant Chairman and CEO commented, “As we stated last December, we were not interested in participating in a lengthy evaluation process and we are disappointed that the ISTA team was not willing to fully explore our proposal by January 31. We continue to be disciplined on our M&A strategy and we are actively working on other opportunities that we believe can create value for our shareholders. We wish the ISTA team well in their future endeavors.”
ISTA President and CEO Vicente Anido, Jr. responded, “We repeatedly offered Valeant the opportunity to participate in our strategic review process on a level playing field with others, but it was clear Valeant was only interested in an approach that would have effectively excluded others. We informed Valeant that there were simply too many other companies that had indicated strong interest in ISTA for us to take that approach.”
Read the Valeant press release.
Read the ISTA press release.
