bid is designed to create a rare diseases powerhouse
A
IMING TO CREATE a global leader in rare dis-
eases, Shire has made an unsolicited bid worth roughly $30 billion for Baxalta, the specialty pharmaceuticals company spun off last month from Baxter. Baxalta roundly rejected the offer, which it says undervalues its business. Shire first approached the Illinois-based firm privately on July 10, only to be rebuffed. In a subsequent letter to Baxalta chief executive officer Ludwig N. Hantson, Shire CEO Flemming Ornskov said Hantson’s “lack of engagement has been surprising,” adding, “You have left us with no choice but to make our proposal known to your shareholders.” Last week, Hantson fired back during a call with
TIGHTER LIMIT FOR BERYLLIUM PROPOSED WORKER SAFETY: Industry and
unions back OSHA effort
T
HE ALLOWABLE BERYLLIUM exposure limit
for industrial workers would be slashed to a tenth of current levels under a recent proposal by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration. A historic agreement between United Steelworkers and Materion , the sole U.S. manufacturer of beryllium products, led to the more protective proposal, which the organizations offered to OSHA in 2012. This shows that “industry and labor can collaborate to protect workers and protect jobs at the same time,” says Materion chair Richard J. Hipple. Beryllium dust is best known for causing devastating lung disease in nuclear weapons workers. But industrial exposure to this alkaline earth metal now occurs most often in manufacturing for uses as diverse as space telescopes or dental implants. OSHA proposed tightening the eight-hour beryllium exposure limit from 2.0 µg/m3 of air to 0.2 µg/m3. The agency estimates that the standard will cover about
35,000 workers nationwide and prevent 100 deaths and 50 illnesses each year. “This rule will save lives and reduce suffering,” says OSHA chief David Michaels. OSHA first suggested lowering its exposure limit in the 1970s, but the change was never adopted. The Department of Energy set its standard for nuclear weapons workers at 0.2 µg/m3 in 1999, when Michaels was assistant energy secretary for environment, safety, and health. Michaels hopes that union-industry cooperation will be a model that can speed future regulations that protect chemical workers. “If we continue to go chemical by chemical, we will get some standards out,” he says. “But there are so many chemicals we haven’t gotten to.” Leo W. Gerard, international president of United Steelworkers, says this worker-industry cooperation makes a significant statement to other sectors considering worker protection standards. “We think this is a very important step,” he says.—ANDREA WIDENER
CEN.ACS.ORG
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AUGUST 17, 2015
Ornskov BAXALTA
PHARMACEUTICALS: Unsolicited
analysts. Describing the offer as “wholly inadequate,” Hantson pointed out that the share price Shire offered is one Baxalta expects to achieve on its own over the next year. “We have an attractive set of franchises, and it would be a shame to hand it over for a lowball valuation,” he said. Currently, each company has roughly $6 billion in annual sales. According to Shire, by 2020 the combined firm could achieve $20 billion in sales, 65% of which would come from rare disease treatments. The combined company could also cut costs by streamlining research and wielding more buying power with contract manufacturers, Shire says. Moreover, the deal would ease taxes on Baxalta’s earnings. Because Shire is headquartered in the U.K., the combined company would see a tax rate of 16–17% in 2017 instead of Baxalta’s latest rate of about 23%. Shire has been on an acquisition binge since a deal to be acquired by AbbVie fell through last year. So far this year, Shire has bought NPS Pharmaceuticals, adding a marketed drug for a rare disease called short bowel syndrome; rare gastrointestinal disease firm Meritage Pharma; and eye disease-focused Foresight Biotherapeutics.—LISA JARVIS
NASA
SHIRE GUNS FOR BAXALTA
SHIRE
ACS Chemoji stickers app is now available for Android and Apple! Chemoji is emoji for chemists.
Hantson
Beryllium is the primary ingredient in the mirrors on the James Webb Space Telescope.
