Special-purpose acquisition company- SPAC Oaktree Acquisition Corp. II announced a merger agreement with Alovotech, an Iceland-based biopharmaceutical company valued at $2.25 billion. The decision took place after considering the continued inactiveness of Oaktree stock in premarket trading. The deal is expected to provide Alvotech with gross proceeds of $450 million. Once the deal is closed, which is expected to occur in the first half of 2022, the company’s stock is expected to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “ALVO”.
More than 40 people of the Cooley Team, including mergers and acquisition partners Michal Berknar, Div Gupta and Nicolas Dumont, made this announcement.
Alvotech focuses on developing biosimilar medicines and currently has seven products in its pipeline that treat health conditions, including eye disorder, autoimmunity, ophthalmology, osteoporosis, oncology, and cancer. Oaktree’s stock has edged up 0.3% over the past three months, while the iShares Biotechnology ETF IBB, -2.07% has tumbled 17.2%, and the S&P 500 SPX, -0.72%, has gained 1.6%.
Alvotech is taking this amalgamation positively and looking forward to the great impacts on the company and healthcare system. In a news release, the CEO of Alvotech, Mark Levick said- “Alvotech is in a unique position to impact the global healthcare ecosystem in a positive way and transform patients’ lives. Biosimilar medicines can increase the access for patients while reducing the cost for healthcare systems and that helps to align our mission with all our stakeholders”.
“We believe that this step will accelerate our ability to achieve our vision, and we could be more excited about what the future holds for Alvotech,” he added further.
With this amalgamation, the company is looking forward to becoming a global leader in a biosimilar space by delivering high-quality, cost-effective products & services, enabled by a fully integrated approach and in-house board capabilities.