Battle to acquire Pliva escalates

The U.S. generics company Barr Pharmaceuticals has raised its offer for Croatian generic drugmaker Pliva from $2.2 billion to $2.3 billion, matching a counter-bid from Iceland-based Actavis. Actavis made an unsolicited $1.6 billion bid for Pliva in March, and later increased the offer to $1.9 billion; Pliva rejected both offers as undervaluing its business. The real battle began late last month when Barr stepped in with a $2.2 billion bid that was endorsed by Pliva's board (C&EN, July 3, page 9). Actavis claims to have the upper hand through a 20.4% stake in Pliva; Barr, however, says the Icelandic firm actually only has options to purchase 10.7% of those shares, rather than direct ownership. U.S. antitrust rules restrict Barr from acquiring Pliva shares until the formal bidding process ends. "Shareholders are being led to believe that the process is already over," says Barr CEO Bruce L. Downey. "In fact, the process is far from being over, and the competition for ownership of Pliva is just beginning." For its part, Pliva is asking shareholders to refrain from taking any action until the offers from both companies are made public. Pliva says both bids pose potential U.S. antitrust issues, but it believes they can be resolved.