Teva to acquire Barr in $7 billion deal

JERUSALEM Teva Pharmaceuticals today announced that it would buy rival generic manufacturer Barr Pharmaceuticals in a deal worth more than $7 billion, according to the Associated Press. The figure includes $1.5 billion of Barr’s debt.

The deal is expected to close at the end of this year and with that, Teva said it should bring $300 million in annual cost savings within three years and add to its profits within a year of the deal closing.

Teva is the number one generic company in the world, with sales of $9.4 billion while Barr was ranked number four with $2.5 billion in revenue.

Besides many popular generic contraceptives, Barr sells its brand-name Seasonique, which limits menstrual periods to four times per year. And it began selling a generic version of Bayer AG's birth-control pill Yasmin in the U.S. in July. Barr also has the rights to sell a generic version of the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder drug Adderall XR starting April 1, 2009.

Together, the two companies have more than 500 products on the market, as well as more than 200 applications pending in the U.S. to sell generic versions of brand-name drugs with combined sales exceeding $120 billion a year. The combined company will have about 37,000 employees and operations in more than 60 countries.

The boards of both companies have approved the deal, but approval is still needed from Barr stockholders and various regulators in North America and Europe.