Another US acqusition for Actavis, which bids up to $238 million for Abrika

Actavis, the acquisitive Iceland-headquartered generic drugmaker, has announced another deal,with its proposed purchase of USA-based Abrika Pharmaceuticals, a specialty generics company engaged in the formulation and commercialization of both controlled-release and other technically-difficult to make drug products.

The Icelandic firm says it has reached an agreement to acquire Abrika for an initial gross consideration of 85.0 million euros ($111.5 million) in cash. Additional earn-out payments of up to 96.0 million euros are payable over the next three years subject to performance.

Following completion of the acquisition, Actavis says it will become one of the leading companies in the US market in developing CR products, with over 50 such drugs in the pipeline, over 50.0 million euros expected to be invested in CR development in 2007 and 100 employees dedicated to this work. The enlarged group will have 13 pending Abbreviated New Drug Applications with the US Food and Drug Administration.