British drugmaker AstraZeneca PLC plans to spend about $260 million on Omthera Pharmaceuticals Inc., a specialty drug developer with a potential treatment for patients who have high levels of fats called triglycerides in their blood.
AstraZeneca said Tuesday it will pay $12.70 for each share of Omthera, which priced an initial public offering last month at $8 per share. AstraZeneca's price represents an 87 percent premium compared to the stock's closing price Friday of $6.77.
The price of Omthera shares nearly doubled, climbing $6.73 to $13.50, before markets opened Tuesday.
AstraZeneca said the deal totals about $323 million when counting Omthera's cash balances.
Omthera shareholders also could receive additional payments totaling about $120 million if the potential treatment called Epanova reaches development milestones. Those contingent value rights add up to about $4.70 per share
Omthera, based in Princeton, N.J., has completed late-stage testing on Epanova, a fish oil-based treatment. It plans to submit the drug, which is a coated, soft gelatin capsule, to U.S. regulators for approval by the middle of this year.
Omthera has only 14 employees and focuses on developing new treatments for abnormal lipid levels in the blood. The company's shares closed at $7.43 on April 11, the stock's first day of trading, and had remained below the IPO price until Tuesday morning.
AstraZeneca said last month that its first-quarter profit fell 31 percent as generic competition for bipolar medication Seroquel IR, high blood pressure drug Atacand and cholesterol drug Crestor drove revenue down.
U.S.-traded shares of AstraZeneca rose 2.4 percent, or $1.25, to $53.42 in premarket trading Tuesday.
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