OPKO Health to acquire PROLOR Biotech in $480 million stock deal

Continuing on its acquisitive path, US drugmaker OPKO Health (NYSE: OPK) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Israel-based  PROLOR Biotech (NYSE MKT: PBTH), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing longer-acting proprietary versions of already approved therapeutic proteins, in an all-stock transaction.

Under the terms of the accord, which has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies, holders of PROLOR common stock will receive 0.9951 shares of OPKO common stock for each share of PROLOR common stock. Based on a price of $7.03 per share of OPKO common stock, the transaction is valued at approximately $480 million, or $7.00 per share of PROLOR common stock. The companies expect the transaction to be completed during the second half of 2013. Closing of the transaction is subject to certain conditions including, the approval of OPKO's and PROLOR's stockholders and other customary closing conditions. The deal price is 20% above PROLOR’s closing level of $5.83 in US trading ahead of the announcement, a premium that left some investors dissatisfied, comments news service Bloomberg.

PROLOR will add to OPKO’s string of recent buys, which include Farmdiet in Europe, Silcon in Brazil, ALS Distribuidora in Chile and Cytochroma in Canada, as well as stakes in an Israeli vaccine maker and Russia’s Pharmsynthez (The Pharma Letters passim).