ISTA Pharma rejects Valeant's advances; Alexza could be for sale

Acquisitive Canadian drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International (TSX: VRX) has entered into another hostile takeover attempt, this time revealing that it has offered to buy USA-based ophthalmic and allergy drug firm ISTA Pharmaceutical (Nasdaq: ISTA) for $6.50 a share, or around $314 million in total, plus the assumption of $13 million of debt, bringing the total enterprise value to some $327 million.

Valeant has so far this year made eight takeover bids, several of which have been completed or are near finalization. Its spectacular failure, however, was that to acquire biotech firm Cephalon for $5.7 billion, but was topped for the prize by Israel’s Teva, which paid $6.8 billion for the firm.

Confirming receipt of the unsolicited approach, ISTA says that, after careful deliberation, its board of directors had previously determined on December 13, 2011, that the non-binding proposal was “grossly inadequate and not in the best interests of ISTA shareholders.”