Sanofi Considers a Counterbid for Actelion, Challenging J&J for Biotech Company

According to Bloomberg, a counterbid for Actelion Ltd. might be in the cards for Sanofi, which would rival an offer made by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) last week.

J&J’s original bid on November 24 was kept under wraps—with neither company commenting on the offer.

Actelion is currently valued at $17 billion. The biotech company has a portfolio of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) treatments, including oral, inhaled, and intravenous.

Bloomberg reports on this latest expressed interest by Sanofi:

The French drugmaker is working with advisers as it weighs its options, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. Sanofi, which has informally made its interest known to Switzerland’s Actelion, hasn’t made a final decision on whether to proceed with a bid, the people said.

But J&J hasn’t given up its intended goal. In fact, the company aims to reach a deal before Christmas, Bloomberg states, adding that “J&J raised its bid above $250 a share, a person said last week, which would value Actelion at more than $27 billion.”

Novartis, too, eyed Acetlion at one point as a potential acquisition but decided against it, saying that they were focusing on acquisitions of “less than $5 billion.”

But no deal is guaranteed. According to Bloomberg:

Any deal will hinge on winning over the company’s chief executive officer and co-founder, Jean-Paul Clozel. Clozel, 61, is one of the company’s largest shareholders and has previously said he wants Actelion to remain independent. Still, the company may be more open to entertaining a sale at a sufficient premium, a person familiar with the deliberations had said. There’s no guarantee a deal will be reached and talks could still fall apart.

Earlier this year, Pfizer beat out Sanofi in a deal to buy Medivation Inc.

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