Celgene to Buy Receptos for About $7.2 Billion--Update

By Josh Beckerman 

Celgene Corp. has reached a deal to buy fellow biopharmaceutical company Receptos Inc. for about $7.2 billion, enhancing its portfolio of immune-inflammatory disease treatments with the addition of Ozanimod.

As a result, Celgene is raising its financial targets for 2020, projecting net product sales of more than $21 billion. For this year, Celgene expects net product sales of $9 billion to $9.5 billion.

The $232-a-share deal offers a 12% premium to Receptos's Tuesday closing price of $207.18.

Receptos's Ozanimod is in development for immune indications, including relapsing multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel disease.

"Ozanimod is a potentially transformational oral therapy that has demonstrated robust clinical activity" in trials, Celgene said in a statement.

Celgene last month agreed to pay Juno Therapeutics Inc. $1 billion as an initial investment in a 10-year collaboration to develop treatments that harness the immune system to fight cancer.

Celgene, based in Summit, N.J., has been on a deal-making spree in recent years as the threat of generic competition to its biggest drug by revenue, Revlimid, looms larger. Celgene derived nearly a third of its $7.67 billion in global sales last year from Revlimid, a blood-cancer treatment whose patents are being challenged by generic-drug makers.

In after-hours trading, Celgene shares were up 4.7% to $128.60.

Celgene also said it is increasing its 2015 guidance for earnings, excluding items, to the range of $4.75 to $4.85 a share, from its previous view of $4.60 to $4.75, reflecting strong preliminary second-quarter results.

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