Glaxo Bids $120 a Share for Eidos in Rival Offer

(Bloomberg) -- Eidos Therapeutics Inc., which has agreed to an offer from BridgeBio Pharma, received a competing approach from GlaxoSmithKline Plc last month, according to people familiar with the matter.

Earlier Friday, BridgeBio Pharma said in a filing that an unidentified “large international pharmaceutical company” initially offered $120 per share in a non-binding, all-cash deal for all of Eidos in late November. That offer would value Eidos at roughly $4.6 billion.

The bidder, which people said was U.K. drugmaker Glaxo, later indicated that it would go higher than that offer.

BridgeBio owns more than 60% of Eidos, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. BridgeBio agreed in October to buy the rest of the company, offering minority holders either 1.85 BridgeBio shares or $73.26 in cash for each Eidos share. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021.

The filing showed that the bidder made other offers to the company, including one to buy just the minority shares for $110 apiece. It also pitched a collaboration agreement to commercialize Eidos’s lead experimental drug, acoramidis, according to the filing.

A representative for BridgeBio declined to comment. Representatives for Eidos and Glaxo couldn’t be reached for comment.

A representative for Eidos’s special board committee said it’s “intensely focused” on the interests of minority shareholders and had “numerous discussions” with its advisers and the suitor to see whether a deal could be reached. BridgeBio doesn’t intend to increase its offer, according to the Eidos committee spokesperson.

BridgeBio said in its filing Friday that it concluded that the collaboration terms offered by what it called Company C weren’t attractive and that it wasn’t interested in selling its stake in Eidos.

San Francisco-based Eidos rose 6.9% Friday on the news of a rival bid, closing at $113.80 with a market value of $4.4 billion. BridgeBio shares rose 6.2% to $61.35 giving it a market value of $7.5 billion.

Rival Drug to Pfizer

Acoramidis could compete with Pfizer Inc.’s Vyndaqel/Vyndamax, also known as tafamidis. Last year, the Pfizer drug was the first of its kind to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat a condition in older people known as transthyretin amyloidosis.

The medication slows the progression of the potentially fatal condition that can lead to trouble breathing, fatigue and heart problems. Pfizer’s drug is available globally and has estimated 2020 sales of $1.2 billion. In the U.S., however, a $225,000-a-year price tag has been criticized as too costly, including by scientists who helped develop the drug.

Eidos said in October it had finished enrolling patients in a late-stage trial.

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