Johnson & Johnson Near A Deal To Buy Pharmacyclics: FT

(RTTNews) - Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) may be close to striking a deal to buy cancer drugmaker Pharmacyclics (PCYC), the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

The deal could be through in the coming days with JNJ expected to value Pharmacyclics at a premium to its $17.5 billion market capitalization. The talks on the deal are yet to be finalized and may still fall apart, the FT said.

Pharmacyclics shares gained more than 3 percent in after-hours trade on the Nasdaq.

Investors may possibly have anticipated a sale of Pharmacyclics. On February 26, Pharmacyclics shares surged after Bloomberg reported that the company is exploring a possible sale and that JNJ and Novartis could be among the suitors.

In case a merger happens, it would be the biggest for JNJ since its $21.3 billion acquisition of specialized surgical device maker Synthes in 2011.

A deal will also be a climax to a long partnership between JNJ and Pharmacyclics over a blood cancer treatment.

In January, Pharmacyclics and JNJ unit Janssen Biotech said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expanded approval for Imbruvica in all lines of therapy as the first and only treatment for patients with Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia, a rare, indolent type of B-cell lymphoma.

This is the fourth indication for Imbruvica, an oral therapy, which received FDA Breakthrough Therapy Designation for this indication in February 2013.

JNJ closed Wednesday at $101.65, down $0.69 or 0.67%, on a volume of 8.6 million shares. In after hours, the stock gained $0.55 or 0.54% at $102.20.

PCYC closed at $230.48, up $13.71 or 6.33%, on a volume of 2.7 million shares on the Nasdaq. In after hours, the stock gained $7.00 or 3.04% at $238.00.