Novartis offers to buy out Chiron for $4.5 billion

Friday, Sept. 2, 2005 | 9:29 a.m.

NEW YORK -- Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis offered $4.5 billion on Thursday for the 58 percent of Chiron it does not already own, in one of the biggest deals consolidating the biotech and vaccine industries.

Investors vaulted Chiron shares well above Novartis' bid of $40 cash per share. That suggests it may need to sweeten its offer for the California biotech, which is still recovering from its failure to supply nearly half the United States' flu vaccine this past flu season.

Chiron said its board -- excluding three Novartis-appointed directors -- "will thoroughly evaluate the offer," with help from Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse.

Novartis' offer underscores the growing value of biotech firms as traditional pharmaceutical firms such as Novartis and Pfizer work to replenish new-drug pipelines.

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