Under the terms of its agreement with the Canadian company Aspreva Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Galenica has purchased 100% of the outstanding shares in Aspreva in cash via a wholly owned Canadian subsidiary for a price of USD 26 per share. As a result of the closing of this takeover agreement, common shares in Aspreva will be delisted from the NASDAQ Global Select Market and from the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Today's announcement follows approval of the offer by shareholders during an extraordinary shareholders' meeting on 17 December 2007, the subsequent judicial approval of 18 December 2007 and the fulfilment of the regulatory requirements for closing this transaction. The transaction was carried out in compliance with the Statutory Plan of Arrangement in accordance with Section 288 of the British Columbia Business Corporations Act.
Aspreva will be integrated into the restructured Pharma business sector as an independent Galenica subsidiary. With this integration, the companies in the Pharma business sector will form a new fullyintegrated specialty pharma group called Vifor Pharma. Vifor Pharma is focused on prescription products and Consumer Health products, which it markets both through its own international sales structures and through local partners and agents. Vifor Pharma is focused on research, development, production and marketing of its own preparations and on potential future in-licensed products in the areas of anaemia and nephrology. The focus in the Consumer Health area is on the development of own structures in key markets in Europe and on the continual optimisation of the product range through own developments and through the acquisition of products, licences and companies.