Davis Polk & Wardwell and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz have won the top roles on Pfizer’s $5.2bn (£3.61bn) purchase of Anacor, just over a month after Pfizer abandoned its deal with Allergan.
Wachtell corporate partners Edward Herlihy, David Lam and Alison Zieske advised Pfizer on its most recent M&A transaction, having worked with the pharmaceutical giant on its attempted takeover of Allergan.
The team also consisted of Wachtell antitrust partner Joseph Larson, executive compensation and benefits Jeannemarie O’Brien, finance partner Gregory Pessin and tax partner Jodi Schwartz.
The target Anacor sought legal counsel from Davis Polk New York partners Michael Davis and Oliver Smith, with the firm understood to have played no role in Pfizer and Allergan’s proposed merger.
Pfizer expects to complete the acquisition in the third quarter of 2016 once it has gained US antitrust clearance.
The transaction will give Pfizer access to Anacor’s portfolio of drugs, which are aimed specifically at people with dermatis and eczema.
Background to the deal
Pfizer’s $160bn (£111bn) merger with Allergan collapsed at the start of April, after the US Treasury and Internal Revenue Service issued proposed regulations to reduce the benefits of corporate tax inversions.
The deal, announced last November, had seen a number of US and Irish firms win work, including Wachtell, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, as well as Arthur Cox and A&L Goodbody.
Pfizer’s proposed merger with Allergan saw the former return to Skadden for counsel, having been represented by Ropes & Gray on its $17bn acquisition of Hospira last August.
Skadden acted for Pfizer on its proposed multi-billion dollar takeover of UK rival AstraZeneca in 2014, although this deal also broke down. Davis Polk & Wardwell advised the UK target alongside Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, with the US firm having a substantial life sciences practice. Just last month it advised Anacor Pharmaceuticals on its $287.5m offering, fielding a team that included partners Michael Kaplan and Sophia Hudson.