By George Parker and Andrew Ward in London
AstraZeneca cautions over £63bn offer
AstraZeneca has urged David Cameron not to give ammunition to Pfizer’s £63bn takeover approach as the UK group prepares to step up its defence by trumpeting a range of new drugs under development.
Leif Johansson, AstraZeneca’s Swedish chairman, cautioned the prime minister that the government’s active engagement with Pfizer could allow the US group to claim that Downing Street was in favour of the deal, according to people familiar with the conversation, which took place on Friday.
Details of the conversation emerged after Ed Miliband, leader of the opposition Labour party, on Sunday accused Mr Cameron of acting like a “cheerleader” for Pfizer after ministers entered negotiations with the company over jobs and investment before it has even made a formal offer.
Downing Street on Monday reiterated its line that it was not “cheerleading for Pfizer” but fighting for British jobs and science. One official close to Mr Cameron said the prime minister could not be held responsible for how Pfizer interpreted the government’s response.
AstraZeneca, which rejected Pfizer’s informal £50-per-share proposal last week as a “substantial” undervaluation, will today issue details of its strengthening pipeline of new drugs – including some promising cancer therapies – in an effort to persuade investors to keep faith with it as an independent company. “We are convinced that we have a good strategy that is making good progress and that we can stand on our own,” said Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca chief executive.
Pfizer’s approach received a boost yesterday when an influential UK pharmaceuticals industry figure criticised the “political and nationalistic furore” around the bid.
Richard Sykes, chairman of the Royal Institution and former chief executive of GlaxoSmith-Kline, said it was “irrelevant” who owns Pfizer and where it was based. “What is really important is that Britain encourages these companies to do their drug discovery and development work here,” he writes in today’s Financial Times.
Pfizer said it was “very disappointed” by AstraZeneca’s refusal to enter talks and said it was keeping open all options for its next step. Ian Read, Pfizer chairman and chief executive, urged AstraZeneca’s board to reconsider its refusal to talk.
Pfizer has until May 26 under UK takeover rules to persuade AstraZeneca to enter talks or, if it fails, to make a hostile bid or walk away.
Analysts say one of the reasons Pfizer wants to buy AstraZeneca is the relatively weak prospects of its own development pipeline. The company reported a 9 per cent drop in first-quarter sales to $11.4bn. (FT)
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