U.S. giant Watson Pharmaceuticals (NYSE:WPI), Incorporated will take Actavis name, a company based in Switzerland which it bought in a trade worth €4.25 billion ($5.9 billion). The transaction makes it the third largest generic drug maker in the world.
“When we announced the acquisition of Actavis in April 2012, we immediately started a wide-ranging consideration of possibilities for our global positioning and corporate brand (…). Watson has not registered its corporate name globally. When we started implementing the global expansion strategy in 2009, it became very clear that we can not use a single brand – Watson – in all markets where we operate,” said Paul Bisaro, President and CEO of Watson. Bisaro added: “It became clear that one of the many assets within this acquisition was the Actavis name,” Bisaro said. “(It’s) not only a dynamic and exciting name, but also is trademarked and protected around the world.”
The new name will avoid trademark infringement for a company that will do business in the whole world.
The company has announced that it will launch a rebranding campaign that will run over the next years for all units, operations and its commercial entities and will adopt a new symbol for quotations at the New York Stock Exchange in 2013.
Watson performed well in its last quarter with $1.35 a share in adjusted earnings, 24% up from the same period of last year. This is 7 cents more than the analysts predicted.
Paul Bisaro prediction of earnings 30% to 40% higher for 2013 sent the stock up to $90 yesterday morning, for the first time in the 19-year-old history of the company. The stock closed today at $ 86.73 on NYSE.
Next year the company will launch the generic version of Lidoderm (Lidocaine, a common local anesthetic and antiarrhythmic drug) after it closed a deal with the maker of the Lidoderm, Endo Health Solutions (NASDAQ:ENDP). It will have a six-month term of exclusivity before other generic rivals will have a chance to go on the market and bring down the price.
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