ANI Pharmaceuticals Inc. launched a recommended public cash offer for Egetis Therapeutics AB, valuing the Swedish rare-disease company at about $560 million and adding Emcitate, the first approved treatment for MCT8 deficiency, to its specialty portfolio.
The Baudette, Minn., company is offering 11.25 Swedish kronor a share, a premium of about 27% to Egetis’s 60-day volume-weighted average price. That prices the equity at roughly SEK 5.6 billion. After Egetis announced the sale of a priority-review voucher for $190 million gross on Nov. 4, ANI put the enterprise value of the deal at about $434 million.
A rare-disease bolt-on
Emcitate is approved in the United States and Europe for MCT8 deficiency, a rare genetic disorder that impairs thyroid-hormone transport in the brain. ANI said the drug could eventually generate more than $300 million a year at peak and would expand the scale of its rare-disease franchise.
Egetis’s board unanimously recommended the offer. Shareholders holding about 42% of the stock have agreed to tender. The offer is conditioned on acceptance of at least 90% of the shares, and the acceptance period is expected to run from about Nov. 20 through Dec. 18.
Financing and advisers
JPMorgan is providing financing for the bid. Jefferies is financial adviser to ANI, with Ropes & Gray and Mannheimer Swartling as legal counsel. Centerview Partners and Vinge are advising Egetis.
U.S. specialty drugmakers have been hunting for approved orphan products that can be commercialized without the cost of a full discovery pipeline. For ANI, Emcitate offers a marketed rare-disease asset; for Egetis holders, the offer locks in a cash exit after the PRV sale narrowed the company’s capital needs.
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