A spokesman for Swiss drugmaker Novartis has confirmed that it has no plans to bid for Actavis, the generics drugmaker based in the United States. This is in light of the frenzied speculations of takeover for the American pharmaceutical firm.
According to Eric Althoff, "We have no intention to pursue them."
A news report from the Wall Street Journal had reported that Novartis was considering to throw its hat into the bidding ring, despite the fact that it has a large generics business in a firm called Sandoz. This also comes after Actavis had declined previous takeover bids from Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc and Mylan Inc.
Sandoz was purchased last year by Novartis for US$8.7 billion. Actavis on the other hand was created from the merger with Watson Pharmaceuticals had sales for 2012 topping US$8 billion.
The rumors come after industry analysts say that Novartis stands to gain the most with an Actavis buyout. With the no intention statement, clearly these industry analysts are quite off in their pronouncements or it is keeping its cards very close to its chest.
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