German drug giant Merck has offered more than $17 billion to buy Schering AG, its rival and fellow German pharmaceutical company.
Which is interesting, but what does it have to do with the biotech backyard of Snohomish County? A bit, as there are links to both companies locally.
First of all, Merck is the company that recently dropped Bothell’s Nastech like a hot potato when its own study brought up questions about the effectiveness of Nastech’s anti-obesity nasal spray. That decision dropped Nastech’s stock down by 37 percent in one day.
Schering AG is the parent of Berlex, which has offices in Bothell and is building a $70-plus million biotech drug manufacturing plant in Lynnwood.
Schering’s shares actually soared today, but not because investors think Merck will be successful. Instead, they feel that someone else — a white knight as it were, http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/13/yourmoney/merck.php — will make even a bigger bid for the company.
Here’s some more coverage of the clash of German titans, including AP’s coverage, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/13/ap/business/mainD8GAT72O5.shtml; the story from Reuters, http://today.reuters.com/business/newsarticle.aspx?type=ousiv&storyID=2006-03-13T191726Z_01_FAB010983_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESSPRO-SCHERING-MERCK-DC.XML; and from the Financial Times of London via MSNBC, http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11811407/.
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