France's Ipsen makes strong push into USA with three acquisition deals

Yet another drugmaker to take advantage of the weak US dollar to advance its foray into the lucrative pharmaceutical market is French mid-sized company Ipsen, which has announced three deals, including picking up the near 75% balance of California-based Tercica, taking over the American operations of the UK's Vernalis and an asset purchase from Octagen. Ipsen says its aim is to market its key specialist care products directly in the world's largest drug market.

Deal values Tercica at $663 million

In the field of endocrinology, Ipsen has entered into a definitive merger agreement by which it would acquire all of the publicly held shares of Tercica the French group does not currently own, at a price of $9.00 per share in cash. This is a 104% premium to the US firm's closing price ahead of the announcement and values it at about $633.0 million. The actual cost to Ipsen is around $404.0 million. The news saw the US firm's stock more than double from $4.39 to $8.80 on June 5.