Wednesday, Hospira, Inc., (HSP) announced that the Hart-Scott-Rodino review period for its merger deal with the Indian pharmaceuticals company, Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd., has expired with no action by the Federal Trade Commission or FTC.
The Lake Forest, Illinois-based Hospira said that the the expiration of the HSR review period satisfies one of the conditions necessary for the transaction to close.
Hospira and Orchid expect that the transaction will be completed in March.
Hospira and Orchid reached a merger deal on December 15, 2009, under which Hospira proposed to acquire Orchid for about $400 million.
Hospira's acquisition includes Orchid's beta-lactam antibiotics manufacturing complex, which comprises of cephalosporin, penicillin and carbapenem facilities, pharmaceutical research and development facility at Irungattukottai, Chennai and its generic injectable product portfolio and pipeline. Beta-lactam antibiotics represent a class of drugs with a wide spectrum of antibacterial activity, the company said.
At the the time of the agreement, Hospira said the acquired generic injectable pharmaceuticals business will be supplied with active pharmaceutical ingredients or APIs by the Chennai, India-based Orchid Chemicals, according to a separate long-term exclusive deal reached between both the companies. The deal marks continuation of the existing product development and commercialization agreement reached between Hospira and Orchid in 2005.
Quarterly net sales of Hospira for the recent third quarter had advanced by 8.9% year-over-year to $1.01 billion, helped by an increase in Specialty Injectable Pharmaceuticals.
On December 13, Hospira and ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (CXSPY.PK) have signed an exclusive agreement to license, develop and commercialize ChemGenex's product candidate omacetaxine mepesuccinate, a novel targeted cytotoxic pharmaceutical product, in Europe, the Middle East and parts of Africa.
HSP is currently trading at $49.70, up $0.28 or 0.57% on a volume of 0.23 million shares on the NYSE.
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