-=The Medicines Co (MDCO) to be acquired by Novartis (NVS) for $85.00/share

• Novartis adding a cholesterol drug to its arsenal.

The Medicines Co to be acquired by Novartis (NVS) for $85.00/share in cash 

Novartis announced today that it has entered into an agreement and plan of merger with The Medicines Company to acquire the US-based biopharmaceutical company for $85.00/share in cash, valuing the company at approximately $9.7 bln on a fully diluted equity basis. The offer price represents a premium of approximately 41% over The Medicines Company's 30-day (to November 22, 2019) volume weighted average price of $60.33 and approximately 24% premium over The Medicines Company's closing share price of $68.55 on November 22, 2019 which represented a fully diluted equity value of approximately $7.7 bln when including the impact of outstanding stock options and convertible debt. The transaction has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies.

The offer price represents a premium of approximately 41% over The Medicines Company's 30-day volume weighted average price of USD 60.33 and approximately 24% premium over The Medicines Company's closing share price of USD 68.55 on November 22, 2019 which represented a fully diluted equity value of approximately USD 7.7 bln when including the impact of outstanding stock options and convertible debt.

The transaction is expected to create significant value for patients, payers and Novartis shareholders. Assuming completion in the first quarter of 2020, Novartis expects inclisiran to start to contribute to Group and IM Division sales from 2021. It is also expected to further drive growth of the Cardiovascular-Renal-Metabolism franchise with the potential to become one of the largest products by sales in the Novartis portfolio, leveraging Novartis' global cardiovascular commercial capabilities.

The acquisition is expected to modestly dilute core EPS versus a no deal scenario during the next few years as the company invests for a successful launch of inclisiran. Novartis expects the transaction to be significantly accretive to Group core operating income and core EPS in the medium term, driven by sales growth and operational synergies, leveraging the worldwide footprint of the cardiovascular business.

=The Medicines Co (MDCO) reported earnings on Wed 25 Oct 2017 (b/o)

The Medicines Co misses by $0.17, misses on revs; finalizing plans to significantly restructure company

• Reports Q3 (Sep) loss of $1.19 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.17 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus of ($1.02); revenues fell 55.1% year/year to $16.87 mln vs the $26.06 mln Capital IQ Consensus.
• "We aggressively advanced start-up work for the inclisiran Phase III clinical program, preparing investigational sites--which began screening patients in September--and manufacturing double-blind-packaged drug supply, and are pleased to announce that dosing of patients in the Phase III LDL-C lowering program will commence next week. We remain confident that all trials comprising the inclisiran LDL-C lowering program will commence before year-end. Turning to our process to monetize our Infectious Disease Business (ID Business), we continue to expect to announce a transaction to divest the business before the end of the year. In the meantime, independent of that transaction, we are finalizing plans to significantly restructure the remainder of The Medicines Company. We anticipate that the restructuring, which we intend to substantially implement within the next 45 days, will reduce headcount to less than 60 people at The Medicines Company (excluding the ID Business), significantly reducing go-forward annual operating expenses. As indicated in our strategic plans previously disclosed, we believe that the restructuring, when taken together with the anticipated disposition of our ID Business, will provide the Company with a strong financial position from which to aggressively advance the inclisiran development program to anticipated readout of final data from the Phase III LDL-C lowering trials in the second half of 2019. We expect to provide further information regarding the restructuring plan and its implementation in our third quarter Form 10-Q."
• At September 30, 2017, the Company had a total of $208.9 million in cash and cash equivalents and available for sale securities.

=The Medicines Co (MDCO) : FDA approves Vabomere

The Medicines Co confirms FDA approval of VABOMERE for injection for the treatment of adult patients with complicated urinary tract infections
The co expects that VABOMERE will be available in the fourth quarter of 2017. The FDA approval of VABOMERE triggered a $40 million milestone payment obligation to the former securityholders of Rempex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which the co acquired in December 2013.