Wall Street Journal says Valeant Pharma has made takeover approach to Meda AB

The Wall Street Journal reports that Valeant Pharmaceuticals Inc. (TSX:VRX) has made a takeover approach to Meda AB, a Swedish specialty drug maker.

The newspaper, which cited "people familiar with the matter" said Valeant declined to comment and Meda issued a statement saying it hadn't received an approach.

Earlier this year, Meda sold Valeant the rights in the U.S., Canada and Mexico for two dermatological creams, Elidel and Xerese. Under that agreement, Valeant will pay $76 million over 18 months, plus milestone and royalty payments.

Valeant, which has its headquarters near Toronto in Mississauga, Ont., was formed in September by the merger of Biovail Corp. (TSX:BVF) and California-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals International (NYSE:VRX).

Since then, Valeant has made a number of corporate and product acquisitions and was forced to back away from one hostile takeover attempt.

In mid-July, it announced separate agreements to buy the Ortho Dermatologics division of Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $345 million and skin care treatment company Dermik, a unit of Sanofi, for $425 million.

It also agreed in February to acquire U.S. and Canadian rights to anti-cold sore drug Zovirax from GlaxoSmithKline for $300 million.

In May, Valean bowed out of its attempt to buy U.S. drug developer Cephalon Inc. (Nasdaq:CEPH), after Valeant's hostile offer $5.7 billion was topped by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq:TEVA), which agreed to pay US$6.8 billion including Cephalon's assumed debt.