Science in the Triangle

The $3.1 billion offer for Talecris Biotherapeutics, one of the Triangle’s largest drugmaker, raised antitrust questions from the very beginning.

Only a handful of companies worldwide make medicines from blood plasma, a yellowish fluid that contains disease fighting proteins. Baxter International of Deerfield, Ill., is the current market leader, followed by CSL of Australia and Talecris, which is based in Research Triangle Park and employs about 2,100 in the Triangle. A merger of Talecris and CSL would create a new No.1 in the $15 billion industry.

So it came as no surprise when CSL announced Monday that the U.S. Federal Trade Commision will vote on a staff recommendation to block the Talecris deal. The antitrust regulators are expected to announce their decision Thursday.

What is at stake in the deal?

Talecris is CSL’s ticket to gain access to North American and European markets. Talecris’ production plant in Clayton, which employs about 1,500, would become CSL’s only drug making facility in the U.S. And Talecris’ owners - New York buyout firm Cerberus Partners, which also owns U.S. automaker Chrysler, and Ampersand Ventures, a Wellesley, Mass., venture capital firm - could reap about $2 billion.

A CSL takeover would probably lead to job cuts at Talecris’ RTP headquarters. But access to CSL’s ample blood plasma supplies could boost production and create jobs at the Clayton plant, where Talecris has already planned an expansion.

CSL also agreed to assume Talecris’ $1.3 billion in debt.

But a CSL supply agreement that expired at the end of 2008 is not at stake.

Talecris has never disclosed how much of its blood plasma comes from its own collection centers and how much the company has to buy. But analysts have considered CSL a significant supplier. CSL renewed its supply agreement with Talecris effective Jan. 1, Dr. Rachel Carter, a CSL spokeswoman said. And the renewal is good for five years whether the takeover goes through or not.