Eli Lilly and Company’s LLY animal health subsidiary Elanco, announced that it has closed the previously stated acquisition of German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim’s Vetmedica U.S. pet vaccines unit along with a fully integrated manufacturing and R&D site for $885 million.
Lilly’s’ share price gained 9.3% in the past one month compared with Zacks classified Large-Cap Pharmaceuticals industry’s fall of 2.8%.
Coming to the latest news, the acquisition of the Vetmedica portfolio of feline, canine and rabies vaccines, as well as several pipeline products, would be a strategic fit for Lilly’s animal health business that makes parasiticides, pain and dermatology medicines for food animals and companion animals.
The deal will diversify Elanco's U.S. companion animal portfolio by complementing its offerings for dogs and cats. Joining Elanco's US portfolio, which includes parasiticides, pain, and dermatology medicines, will be eight product lines, namely, routine vaccines for bordetella, Lyme disease, rabies, and parvovirus. Elanco will now be able to address and provide a variety of solutions to some of the most common issues of pets. Notably, Lilly bought the animal-health division of Novartis NVS in early 2015, which strengthened the Elanco division of the company. The acquisition was subject to the closing of Boehringer Ingelheim's asset swap transaction with Sanofi SNY. Recently, Sanofi announced the closing of the deal under which it exchanged its Merial animal health business with the Boehringer Ingelheim’s consumer healthcare segment. This transaction was signed in Jun 2016.
Zacks Rank & Key Pick
Lilly currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A better-ranked stock in the health care sector is Cambrex Corporation CBM sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Cambrex’s earnings estimates increased 3.7% for 2016 and 5.2% for 2017 in the last 60 days. The company posted a positive earnings surprise in three of the four trailing quarters, with an average beat of 19.78%. Its share price is up 23.5% in the past one year.
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