LIPOSOME COMPANY, LIPOSOME TECHNOLOGY PLANNED MERGER IS OFF

Executive Summary

LIPOSOME COMPANY, LIPOSOME TECHNOLOGY PLANNED MERGER IS OFF; the combination would have created a single corporation named Liposome Companies. In a May 24 press release, the companies announced their "decision to terminate their previously announced merger agreement." The companies originally announced the definitive merger agreement on Feb. 13. At the time, the merger between the oldest liposome R&D firms -- both were founded in 1981 -- was heralded as the beginning of a possible trend of consolidation among existing biotechnology companies. The merger was canceled despite a good fit between the companies' respective research efforts. In the only instances of overlap, both are developing liposomal formulations of the antifungal amphotericin B and doxorubicin; however, the companies have not entered into competing partnership agreements for those products.