Shionogi agrees to buy Sciele Pharma for $1.4b

Shionogi & Co, the Japanese maker of the Crestor cholesterol pill, agreed to buy Sciele Pharma Inc for $1.4 billion, adding salespeople in the US as drug-price cuts erode earnings at home.

Shareholders of Atlanta-based Sciele Pharma will receive $31 a share, 61 percent more than the last closing price, Osaka, Japan-based Shionogi said yesterday in a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. It will also pay $325 million for a convertible bond.

The offer adds to the $156 billion in acquisitions in the global drug and biotechnology industries in 2008, the biggest year on record, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Shionogi, which gets 82 percent of sales in Japan, will reduce its reliance on business at home as government price cuts reduce revenue.