Millennium Pharmaceuticals to acquire COR Therapeutics in $2 billion deal

Millennium Pharmaceuticals has signed a definitive agreement to acquirefellow US firm COR Therapeutics in a stock deal valued at $2.0 billion. Under the terms of the deal, the latter's stockholders will receive 0.9873 shares of newly-issued Millennium common stock, resulting in a 77% premium to COR's share price on the day before the deal was announced (December 5). The transaction, which is subject to shareholder approval, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2002.

The companies said that the merger will create an entity (which will still be called Millennium Pharmaceuticals) with "multiple products on the market, nine candidates in human clinical trials, four therapeutic franchise areas, a strong commercial operating presence, and more than 1,200 employees in R&D." They added that this deal brings together COR's cardiovascular expertise, product pipeline and commercial experience, through its anti-platelet cardiovascular drug Integrelin (eptifibatide), with Millennium's genomic-based technology platform, "business leadership in strategic alliances" and product pipeline in oncology, inflammation and metabolic disease.

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