Cambridge, MA-based biotech Genzyme (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GENZ]]) announced that its board has authorized the company to enter into a confidentiality agreement with Sanofi-Aventis to allow the firm to conduct due diligence on Genzyme, as part of Sanofi’s pursuit to purchase the biotech company. Genzyme has previously turned down Sanofi’s $18.5 billion ($69-per-share tender offer), but today’s announcement suggests that discussions surrounding the deal are advancing. The announcement also revealed that Genzyme and Sanofi are exploring the potential of a contingent value right for alemtuzumab, a Genzyme drug that is in late-stage development as a treatment for multiple sclerosis, as a way to resolve the differences between the two companies in the buyout discussions. Genzyme has previously stated that the Sanofi offer undervalues the company and its pipeline of drugs, including alemtuzumab.
Author: Erin Kutz
Erin Kutz has a background in covering business, politics and general news. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University. Erin previously worked in the Boston bureau of Reuters, where she wrote articles on the investment management and mutual fund industries. While in college, she researched for USA Today reporter Jayne O’Donnell’s book, Gen Buy: How Tweens, Teens and Twenty-Somethings Are Revolutionizing Retail. She also spent a semester in Washington, DC, reporting Capitol Hill stories as a correspondent for two Connecticut newspapers and interning in the Money section of USA Today, where she assisted with coverage on the retail and small business beats. Erin got her first taste of reporting at Boston University’s independent student newspaper, as a city section reporter and fact checker and editor of the paper’s weekly business section.
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