LAKE BLUFF, Ill. (AP) - A large investor in CollaGenex Pharmaceuticals Inc.
said Wednesday that he is "disappointed" by the drug maker's pending $420
million acquisition and has not decided how to respond to the tender offer.
The shareholder, Jack W. Schuler, is chairman of medical waste management
company Stericycle Inc. and a director of Medtronic Inc. He also served as
chairman of Ventana Medical Systems Inc., which was acquired last month by Roche
Holding AG.
Schuler said he owns 980,733 CollaGenex shares, which represents a 4.6
percent stake in the Newtown, Pa.-based company. He said the Schuler Family
Foundation owns an additional about 294,190 shares, or a 1.4 percent stake.
Last month, privately held Galderma Pharma SA, a joint venture of Nestle and
L'Oreal focused exclusively on skin-care products, said it would make a $16.60
per share cash tender offer for CollaGenex. The price represented a nearly 30
percent premium to the stock's previous closing price of $12.80.
"I am disappointed that the company is being acquired at this stage in its
development before Oracea and CollaGenex's pipeline of new products have reached
their full potential," Schuler said in a statement. Oracea, CollaGenex's rosacea
treatment, booked fourth-quarter net sales of $15.2 million, or 91 percent of
the company's product revenue for the period.
"I have not yet decided how to respond to Galderma's tender offer," Schuler
said.
CollaGenex shares gained 8 cents to a 52-week high of $16.56 in afternoon
trading.
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