If all conditions to the proposed merger transaction are satisfied, including the necessary level of shareholder approval, AstraZeneca will receive shares in P&U in exchange for its SUGEN stock. The $31-a-share offer from P&U values the AstraZeneca holding at $94m and represents a significant premium to AstraZeneca's acquisition costs for the Sugen shares.
AstraZeneca and SUGEN have collaborated since 1995 in developing technology and identifying novel cancer targets based on signal transduction, but the five-year research agreement was scheduled to expire in March 2000.
"We have had a friendly and productive research relationship with SUGEN for the past four years. The collaboration has augmented the work AstraZeneca has carried out on its own kinase target research programmes and has broadened the opportunities available to us. We now have a strong in-house presence in this technology with good options to pursue our work in this important research area." said Dr. Les Hughes, Global Head of Cancer Research AstraZeneca.
AstraZeneca is currently number two in oncology and aims to become the leading pharmaceutical company in this area. AstraZeneca is at the forefront of the development of kinase inhibitors for the treatment of cancer. AstraZeneca currently has two compounds - an EGF receptor kinase inhibitor and a VEGF receptor kinase inhibitor (anti angiogenesis agent) - both of which are currently in clinical development, and have come from AstraZeneca's own research in this area.
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AstraZeneca was formed as a result of the completion in April of this year of the merger of the pharmaceuticals businesses of Astra, Sweden, and Zeneca Group, of the UK. In 1998, AstraZeneca had pro forma sales of $17.2bn and a pro forma pre-tax profit of $3.5bn. Its areas of research include cancer, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, respiratory, central nervous system (CNS), pain control and anaesthesia and infection.
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SUGEN, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of proprietary small molecule drugs which target two classes of signal transduction molecules, known as tyrosine kinases and tyrosine phosphates, and their signalling pathways. These molecules are involved in a number of human diseases and disorders, including cancer and diabetes, as well as hematopoietic and neurodegenerative disorders. Founded in 1991, SUGEN's shares are traded on the NASDAQ Stock Market's National Market System under the symbol SGN.
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Pharmacia & Upjohn is a diversified pharmaceutical company with significant franchises in urology/women's health, oncology (cancer), metabolic disease, opthalmology, CNS, anti-inflammatory disease, as well as consumer and animal health businesses.
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