American Pharmaceutical Partners Inc. said Monday it is buying its largest shareholder, privately held American BioScience Inc., for stock worth about $4.1 billion, creating a biopharmaceutical company with annual revenue of more than $500 million.
The new company will be named Abraxis BioScience and will have worldwide rights to cancer treatment Abraxane, which is marketed in the United States for metastatic breast cancer and is being developed for other breast, lung, ovarian, prostate, melanoma and head and neck cancers in more than 74 clinical trials, including seven Phase III studies.
Patrick Soon-Shiong, currently executive chairman of American Pharmaceutical and chief executive officer of American BioScience, will be chairman and chief executive officer of the new company.
Al Heller has stepped down as American Pharmaceutical's chief executive and from the company's board of directors.
Under the terms of the transaction, American Pharmaceutical will issue about 86 million additional common shares to American BioScience, raising the latter's stake in American Pharmaceuticals to about 83.5 percent from its current level of approximately 64.4 percent.
Based on American Pharmaceutical's closing stock price on Friday, the combined company would have a market value of about $7.5 billion on a fully diluted basis.