Boehringer offers to acquire Japanese OTC firm SSP
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
Boehringer Ingelheim's tender offer for all outstanding shares of its Japanese subsidiary SSP will allow the German pharmaceutical company to "more aggressively" pursue OTC switches, the company says in a Feb. 10 release. The offer to buy the remaining 40 percent of SSP's shares each for 710 yen ($7.89 according to Feb. 10 exchange rates) comes just a few months before Boehringer's patent exclusivity for its prescription benign prostatic hyperplasia drug Flomax (tamsulosin) expires in April. Patent cliffs and generic competition for blockbuster prescriptions drugs are pushing many pharmaceutical firms to diversify their business by developing their consumer health businesses and investing in switch platforms (1"The Tan Sheet" Jan. 4, 2010). After the tender offer, which opens Feb. 15 and closes April 13, Boehringer will merge SSP with another subsidiary - Boehringer Ingelheim Japan Investment; SSP will be the surviving company. The deal gives SSP an avenue to market its products, including cold medicines, vitamins and an OTC insomnia medication, overseas. SSP also will gain access to Boehringer's research and development capabilities