Japan”™s Astellas Pharma Inc. has closed on its $4 billion acquisition of OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc., the biotech company joining Westchester”™s cluster with its move this year from Long Island to Ardsley.
In an all-cash transaction, Astellas will pay $57.50 per share of OSI stock, a 55 percent premium on the closing price for OSI”™s shares on Feb. 26, the last trading day before Astellas”™s announced tender offer. Both companies”™ boards of directors unanimously approved the merger.
For Astellas, an international company with 15,000 employees, the merger creates a top-tier platform for its growth strategy of becoming a global leader in oncology, a high-priority therapeutic area for the Tokyo-based company. OSI developed and markets Tarceva, a leading lung cancer drug. It reported total annual revenues in 2009 of $428 million and operating income of $153 million.
Led by CEO Colin Goddard, OSI Pharmaceuticals a year ago chose to relocate its Melville headquarters and North American operations to the 43-acre Ardsley Park Science & Technology Center and the former pharmaceutical center”™s approximately 400,000 square feet of office and laboratory space in the town of Greenburgh. The company began moving its lab operations in May. OSI will bring about 350 employees to Westchester as it consolidates its current operations in Melville and Farmingdale, Cedar Knolls, N.J., and Boulder, Colo.
According to Newsday, elected officials on Long Island and the Long Island Association Inc., the state”™s largest business organization, have asked OSI”™s new owner to reconsider the company”™s relocation to Westchester. OSI, however, closed last summer on its $27 million purchase of the vacant office campus on Saw Mill River Road from Purdue Pharma L.P.
