By Maria Armental
AbbVie Inc. (ABBV) on Friday said it is again extending its
exchange offer to buy cancer biotech Pharmacyclics Inc. (PCYC) in a
cash-and-stock deal valued at $21 billion.
The pharmaceutical giant, which last year called off a deal to
buy Dublin's Shire PLC after new U.S. tax rules made it harder for
American companies to lower taxes through deal-making abroad,
refiled its application with the Federal Trade Commission following
its first extension on April 17.
The first extended offer would have expired at 5 p.m. EDT
Friday. Under the new extension, the offer is set to expire on May
15 at 5 p.m.
The deal would give AbbVie a presence in the multibillion-dollar
blood-cancer market and lessen its reliance on Humira, a
rheumatoid-arthritis therapy that in 2014 accounted for $12.5
billion in sales, or more than 60% of the company's total.
Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires