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Biotech / Medical : Crucell N.V. (CRXL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: fred hayes who wrote (530)	1/23/2009 10:45:23 PM
From: fred hayes	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 560

Correction. Forgot "impact of the" before "pending", so it should read "speculate on the impact of the pending wye buyout of crucell". Kinda changes the meaning, sorry...

To: fred hayes who wrote (530)	9/28/2009 7:34:02 AM
From: pgo-neil	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 560

JnJ buys 18% of CRXL. Apparently PFE and WYE distraction led to an opportunity for JnJ to take a nibble of another company with high potential for earning if they can just get over another set of bumps in the road. ABout 6 weeks ago, NIH gave CRXL a $40M contract with a $28M option that might have provided enough cash for continued influenza MAB development. I hope this takes care of all their funding needs. With JNJ paying 30% over market for the shares, seeing them only appreciate 4% in Amsterdam this morning seems a bit of a shortfall, but I suppose it is better than ELN did. graham -- reuters.com * Johnson & Johnson buys 18 pct stake for 302 mln euros * Collaboration to focus on universal flu vaccine * Deal dilutive to Johnson & Johnson EPS of up to $0.04 * Crucell shares up 4 pct (Adds CEO, analyst comments, details, shares) By Aaron Gray-Block AMSTERDAM, Sept 28 (Reuters) - U.S. diversified health care company Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) has bought an 18 percent stake in biotech firm Crucell (CRCL.AS)(CRXL.O) for 302 million euros ($444 million) as part of a flu vaccine development deal, the Dutch company said on Monday. Vaccine-makers have been hot M&A targets recently, particularly for large drugmakers keen to secure new products as exclusivity on existing best selling products nears an end. Crucell had previously been in takeover talks with U.S. drugmaker Wyeth (WYE.N), but talks were broken off in January after Pfizer (PFE.N) moved in to buy Wyeth. [ID:nN26367941] Johnson & Johnson and smaller rival Abbott (ABT.N) are already the most diversified of the large U.S. and European healthcare companies, but both continue to snap up more companies and products -- often at distressed prices due to the economic downturn. [ID:nLS426471] Crucell said it issued 14.6 million new Crucell shares to Johnson & Johnson, which paid about a 30 percent premium based on the average price of Crucell shares in the past 35 days. That led to a price per share of about 20.63 euros. The transaction will have an estimated dilutive impact of $0.02 to $0.04 on Johnson & Johnson's 2009 adjusted earnings per share. Crucell said the collaboration will focus on developing a universal "flu-mAb" product targeting all influenza A strains. That includes H1N1 strains which cause seasonal flu and the current pandemic flu, along with the H5N1, or avian, strain. Both companies also agreed to milestones and royalty payments based on the successful development and commercialisation of products, but Crucell declined to provide further details. "A universal antibody or vaccine that protects against a broad range of strains would be an important advance in helping ... control acute epidemic and pandemic outbreaks," said Paul Stoffels, global head of pharmaceuticals R&D at Johnson & Johnson, in a statement. Shares in Crucell were up 4 percent at 16.585 euros at 0750 GMT, outperforming a 1.1 percent fall in the Amsterdam midcap index .AMX. Continued...