Mallinckrodt PLC said Monday that it would buy privately-held
immunotherapy company Therakos Inc. for about $1.325 billion, the
latest deal for the acquisitive pharmaceutical company.
Dublin-based Mallinckrodt, which was spun off from Covidien PLC
in 2013, said the purchase is a move to grow its hospital business
within its specialty brands portfolio. The company, like many
others in the space, has sought to grow through acquisitions.
Recent acquisitions include privately held Ikaria Inc. for about
$2.3 billion, Questcor Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $5.8 billion and
Cadence Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $1.3 billion.
Those deals have fueled sales, particularly within the specialty
brand segment, where revenue in Mallinkrodt's June quarter nearly
quintupled from a year earlier and offset sales declines in its
other segments.
Therakos, which specializes in treatments that use patients' own
immune systems to fight disease, is a former unit of a Johnson
& Johnson subsidiary and in 2009 won U.S. regulatory approval
for its photopheresis systems for the treatment of cutaneous T-cell
lymphoma in patients for whom other forms of treatment haven't
worked. The treatment is used by academic medical centers,
hospitals and treatment centers in about 25 countries, Mallinckrodt
said.
Mallinckrodt, which expects to complete the transaction late in
the third quarter, said the deal would add at least 10 cents a
share to adjusted earnings for its 2016 business year. The company
expects Therakos to report $185 to $195 million in 2015 sales and
sees high single-digit sales growth going forward.
Shares in the company, down 19% this month after revenue growth
in its latest quarter missed analysts' expectations, were inactive
premarket.
Write to Lisa Beilfuss at lisa.beilfuss@wsj.com
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