British newspaper The Guardian quoted Liberum Capital analysts who believe Forest Laboratories would be a good acquisition target for AstraZeneca in its marketforceslive article. Forest Laboratories, like AstraZeneca, already knows what it feels like to lose the patent protection of a blockbuster. Liberum Capital hiked its recommendation on AstraZeneca and then said that any deal would close after the year passes and one can get a better handle on Forest’s current position.
What speaks against such a move is that it is somewhat out of the price range of the kinds of deals that the company said it is looking to do. Forest Laboratories has a market cap close to 9 billion USD, so it would be almost as expensive to acquire as the disastrous MedImmune deal that still haunts AstraZeneca decision makers.
AstraZeneca received some further bad news today as UK High Court today ruled that SEROQUEL XR® (quetiapine fumarate) prolonged-release tablet formulation patent to be invalid. The patent was challenged by Accord Healthcare Limited, Intas Pharmaceuticals Limited, Hexal AG and Sandoz Limited, Teva UK Limited, and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited. Earlier a District Court in the Netherlands found the patent to be valid. Several other court proceedings are ongoing.
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