Pharma BD Deal Intelligence

King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. / Alpharma Inc.

2008 · Acquisition/Merger · $1.6B · Complete

WRONG BY 35 POINTS

King's $1.6B pain-franchise bet on Alpharma was gutted by an FTC-forced divestiture, a failed flagship product, and King itself being swallowed by Pfizer within two years.

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The coverage arc

Dec 29, 2008 Federal Trade Commission Bearish

FTC consent order settled charges that King's $1.6B Alpharma acquisition would be anticompetitive in branded oral long-acting morphine sulfate without Kadian…

Jan 15, 2009 Lexology Neutral

FTC required King to divest Kadian to Actavis for $127.5M because King's Avinza and Alpharma's Kadian were the only competitively significant branded morphine…

Source summaries from our enrichment pipeline; follow links for originals.

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$37/share cash; Kadian, Flector, Embeda; FTC required Kadian divestiture to Actavis

Did it work? Outcome assessment

King's $1.6B pain-franchise bet on Alpharma was gutted by an FTC-forced divestiture, a failed flagship product, and King itself being swallowed by Pfizer within two years.

Strategic verdict
Failed to Achieve

Key facts

Related deals — scored

DealYearValueOutcome
King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. / Alpharma Inc. (this deal)2008$1.6B28
ViroPharma Incorporated / Lev Pharmaceuticals, Inc.2008$443M88
Roche Holding AG / Ventana Medical Systems Inc.2008$3.4B88
Shire plc / Jerini AG2008$521M85
Alkermes plc / Cephalon, Inc. (Vivitrol rights)2008$27M83
Sanofi-Aventis / Symbion Consumer (Primary Health Care)2008$544M71
Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. / Millennium Pharmaceuticals2008$8.8B68

Compare all 7 side-by-side →

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