Sept. 18--Irish drugmaker Shire Inc., rebuffed earlier this summer in its efforts to buy Chicago-area drug company Baxalta Inc. for $30 billion, is not giving up.
"We continue to be committed to this deal," Shire Chief Financial Officer Jeff Poulton told investors Thursday at a Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Health Care Conference in London, according to a transcript of his remarks.
Poulton continued: "We're enthusiastic about it. We think it's the right deal strategically and financially for Shire. But we'll also be patient about our approach with Baxalta and disciplined in the approach that we're taking."
Baxalta, the former biosciences division of Baxter International, was spun off as an independent company this summer. In August, Shire went public with its offer for Baxalta, based in Bannockburn. Shire said it had approached Baxalta in July but that Baxalta had turned it down, saying it undervalued Baxalta and would be "severely disruptive" to being an independent operation.
Shire did not say whether it had sweetened the deal. "I'm not in a position to talk about deal tactics today," Poulton said, according to the transcript.
A Baxalta spokesman declined to comment on Thursday, instead referring to remarks its chief executive, Ludwig Hantson, made Wednesday at another investor conference in New York. Hantson didn't mention Shire by name but sounded like he had little interest in combining forces with the Irish company.
"As you know, we are a stand-alone company as of July 1," Hantson said, according to a transcript. "And we have very strong momentum. We have a very strong strategic plan, and we're really delivering on what we said we're going to do."
jrussell@tribupub.com
Twitter johnrussell99
