Schering-Plough to Buy Drug Business

Schering-Plough Corp. said Monday it would buy the human and animal healthcare business of Netherlands-based Akzo Nobel NV for $14.4 billion.

Schering-Plough said the Organon BioSciences purchase expands its healthcare products for women and provides it with an additional pipeline of late-stage drug candidates.

The acquisition also enhances Schering-Plough’s strength in human and animal biologic products, including the potential to develop human vaccines, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Fred Hassan said.

The deal, expected to close by the end of the year, will add about 10 cents a share to earnings next year, after costs and adjustments, Schering-Plough said. The Kenilworth, N.J., drug maker expects to achieve $500 million in synergies from the deal after three years.

Schering-Plough appears to have agreed to pay $1.3 billion more than private equity groups were believed to have told Akzo Nobel they would pay for the unit, The Wall Street Journal reported. Akzo Nobel invited a number of private equity firms to make a bid for the division in January.

Organon had 2006 sales of $3.4 billion.