Firm agrees to buy Vicuron for $1.9 billion in cash

Thursday, June 16, 2005 | 9:37 a.m.

Pfizer Inc., the world's biggest drugmaker, agreed to buy U.S. biotechnology company Vicuron Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $1.9 billion in cash to add antibiotics and fungal treatments to its products in development.

Vicuron investors will get $29.10 a share, the companies said today in a statement. That's 84 percent more than Vicuron's closing price Wednesday. New York-based Pfizer will get two Vicuron treatments now being reviewed by U.S. regulators.

Pfizer is facing cheaper copies of its four top-selling drugs, including the Zithromax antibiotic, by 2010 and looking to infection treatments to help growth. The antibiotic market has expanded to $26 billion as doctors hunt for ways to fight bacteria resistant to existing drugs.

"Drugmakers need to get more products and Vicuron has two phase III products that Pfizer can do a better job of selling," said Eric Bernhardt who manages $500 million in health-care stocks, including Vicuron and Pfizer, at Clariden Bank in Zurich. "It's a market that has a potential, particularly since drug resistance is picking up and treatments of last resort are failing."

Zithromax faces cheaper generic competition this year after bringing in $1.85 billion in sales in 2004.