By Bruce Japsen
| Abbott Laboratories, hoping to boost its cancer and immunology drug development franchises, said it would pay $450 million for Facet Biotech Corp.

The Redwood City, Calif.-based company does not yet have a product on the market but Abbott believes its drug development pipeline has potential. The drugs furthest along in Facet’s development pipeline include daclizumab, an experimental treatment for multiple sclerosis that is expected to move into the final stage of human clinical trials later this year, North Chicago-based Abbott said. In addition, Facet has several oncology compounds in “early to mid-stage development.”

“This acquisition will further strengthen Abbott’s biologics capabilities and pharmaceutical pipeline,” said Dr. John Leonard, senior vice president of Abbott’s global pharmaceutical development. “We continue to explore multiple mechanisms to treat autoimmune diseases and cancer with both biologic and small molecule approaches.”

Terms of the deal call for Abbott to pay $27 a share for a “net transaction value of approximately $450 million.” The purchase price is $722 million less the $272 million value of Facet’s projected cash and marketable securities at the time of the deal’s closing in the second quarter of this year.