In the pharmaceutical world, if you can’t develop ’em, acquire ’em. That seems to be the philosophy behind Pfizer‘s (NYSE: PFE) latest big-ticket buy, specifically its purchase of clinical-stage biotech Metsera (NASDAQ: MTSR), which it announced on Monday.
Metsera specializes in a therapeutic area that’s white-hot these days — weight loss — so it could help Pfizer leap several spaces ahead in the race to develop next-generation drugs for this use. This was a pricey deal, however, so let’s look at how it affects the buy (or sell) case for the purchaser.
The deal is fairly straightforward. Pfizer and Metsera have agreed for the former to acquire the latter. In the all-cash arrangement, Pfizer is to pay $47.50 per Metsera share for its asset-to-be. Additionally, Metsera shareholders will hold non-transferable contingent value rights to receive potential additional milestone payments of up to $22.50 per share.