European Medical Giant In Talks To Buy Lake Forest Drugmaker

LAKE FOREST, IL — Europe's largest publicly traded health care provider has opened talks over the potential acquisition of Lake Forest-based pharmaceutical company Akorn, whose stock has risen sharply in anticipation of the latest multi-billion purchase of a generic drugmaker.

Fresenius based in Bad Homburg, Germany, said in a statement Friday that a deal is not certain. Akorn confirmed discussions are underway. Fresenius makes medical devices and dialysis products. Its medicines division makes up about a fifth of the company's revenue, according to Bloomberg. Purchasing Akorn could strengthen Fresenius' core speciality of injected drugs.

Shares of Akorn rose 18 percent on Friday after Bloomberg reported on the discussions. Akorn's stock price continued to rise in after hours trading, boosting its market valuation to $3.7 billion.

Akorn made more than $1 billion in sales last year, with about 6 percent coming from its consumer-health division. Akorn manufactures pharmaceuticals at facilities located in Decatur, Illinois, Somerset, New Jersey, Amityville, New York, Hettlingen, Switzerland and Paonta Sahib, India.

Last summer, Fresenius hired a new CEO, Stephan Sturm. He proceeded to arrange the companies largest-ever purchase, the acquisition of IDC Salud Holding for more than $6 million.

In the past couple of years, about $78 billion in deals for generic drug companies have been announced. The largest was Teva Pharmaceutical's $40 billion takeover of Allergen, Bloomberg reported.

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