February 23, 2022 | Health Care | North America | Ended

Arena Pharmaceuticals / Pfizer: Deal Insights


US drugmaker Pfizer has signed a definitive agreement to acquire all of biopharma company Arena Pharmaceuticals for $6.7bn. The $100 per share all-cash offer represents a 100% premium to Arena’s share price on 10-Dec-21, the last trading day before news of a possible merger hit the headlines. Completion is subject to antitrust clearances in the US and other jurisdictions, including Austria, Germany (notified on 26-Jan-22), and the EC or UK CMA (if a UK referral is requested and accepted). The definitive proxy was filed on 3-Jan-22 and Arena shareholders voted to approve the acquisition on 2-Feb-22. After initially submitting US antitrust notices in early January 2022, the companies pulled (3-Feb-22) and refiled (7-Feb-22) their HSR filing, so the new waiting period will expire on 9-Mar-22. On its 4Q’21 earnings call held on 8-Feb-22, Pfizer reaffirmed this move as “not unusual” and said it was simply a procedural step to allow the FTC an additional 30 days for review. The refile was likely pursued to account for delays at the FTC following the agency’s assertions that its capacity to investigate deals ahead of statutory deadlines has been challenged due to ...



How to Access this Report

Please contact us to request access to this report.


CONTACT US


Share this article



← RETURN TO RESEARCH

Back to top of page