Financial News

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario — Canadian drug maker Valeant Pharmaceuticals has proposed to buy Cephalon for $5.7 billion, Valeant said Tuesday.

The buyout offer, equal to $73 per share, includes a 29% premium over Cephalon’s stock price. Valeant noted it had made previous offers, but was “disappointed by Cephalon’s unwillingness to engage in discussions in a timely manner.”

PITTSBURGH — GNC is ready to pull the trigger on a long-anticipated initial public offering this Friday, according to several published reports.

It’ll be the third bite of the IPO apple for the Pittsburgh-based specialty chain. But if any time is a right time, that time is now, the company suggested in its prospectus, pointing to the graying of the baby boomer, coupled with increased pursuit of healthier lifestyles, which makes for a strong investment proposition for an already-established specialty channel retailer.

ROCKVILLE, Md. — Catalyst Health Solutions and Walgreens on Monday announced that the Federal Trade Commission has granted early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended, in connection with Catalyst’s previously announced proposed acquisition of Walgreens Health Initiatives, the pharmacy benefit management subsidiary of Walgreens.

Completion of the proposed acquisition remains subject to other closing conditions. The companies continue to expect to complete the transaction in the first half of 2011.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — The board of directors at regional supermarket chain Ingles Markets declared a cash dividend of 16.5 cents per share of Class A common stock and 15 cents per share on all its Class B common stock.

This is an annual rate of 66 cents and 60 cents per share, respectively. Dividends on both the Class A and Class B common stock are payable April 21, to all shareholders of record on April 7.

LONDON — Any manufacturer that has the necessary resources and still is hesitating about whether to tap into biosimilars might want to go ahead and do it, if projections by British market analysis firm Datamonitor come true.

The firm released a report Monday showing that the global biosimilars market, whose value stood at $243 million in 2010, will increase to $3.7 billion by 2015.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A report released Monday by the Commerce Department showed that consumer spending in the United States rose more than forecasted in February as incomes climbed.

Bloomberg News estimated spending would advance 0.5%.

Purchases increased 0.7% — the most since October 2010 — after advancing 0.3% the prior month. Incomes increased 0.3%, less than the 0.4% projected.

DEERFIELD, Ill., and BELLEVUE, Wash. — Shortly after posting record second-quarter sales on Tuesday, Walgreens announced that it would "accelerate its online strategy" by acquiring e-retailer Drugstore.com for about $429 million, subject to customary conditions.

BOSTON — Boston Medical Center announced that it has received a $50,000 grant for the Autism Clinic from CVS Caremark Charitable Trust, the private foundation created by CVS Caremark.

BMC is one of 72 organizations selected from a pool of 660 applicants to receive an individual or multiyear grant for 2010. The grant will allow the Autism Clinic to develop a written behavioral curriculum for hands-on training for parents with low income and/or limited-English proficiency.