The new company will market and develop Abraxane, which is approved in the US for metastatic breast cancer and is being developed for adjuvant breast, lung, ovarian, prostate, melanoma and head and neck cancers. Abraxis will also have a deep product pipeline and a hospital-based injectables business with continuing positive operating cash flow.
The all-stock transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2006. American BioScience (ABI) currently owns approximately 64.4% of the outstanding fully diluted shares of American Pharmaceutical Partners (APP).
In the merger, APP will issue to the ABI shareholders approximately 86 million additional shares of APP common stock raising the ABI shareholders’ fully diluted ownership of the combined entity after the merger to approximately 83.5% from 64.4% owned through ABI.
“We believe this merger is a unique opportunity to combine the strengths of a development-stage biotechnology company with those of a growing and profitable injectable pharmaceutical business to create a fully integrated, global biopharmaceutical leader,” said Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong, executive chairman of APP and chairman and CEO of ABI.