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 on Friday, a BridgeBio Pharma filing said 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.

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

BridgeBio, which owns a majority of Eidos, agreed in October to buy the rest of the company, offering minority holders for either 1.85 BridgeBio shares or $73.26 cash for each Eidos share. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021.

The filing showed that the bidder, which people said was Glaxo, 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 an Eidos’ drug acoramidis, the filing said.

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 if a deal could be reached. BridgeBio doesn’t intend to increase its offer, according to the Eidos committee spokesperson.

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

Eidos’s lead experimental drug, acoramidis, could compete with Pfizer Inc.’s Vyndaqel/Vyndamax, also known as tafamidis. The Pfizer drug was last year 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 condition that can lead to trouble breathing, fatigue and heart problems and can cause death. 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 them.

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

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