King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has agreed to acquire Alpharma, Inc. for approximately $1.6 billion. The agreement, if approved by shareholders, will expand King’s pain drug business with Alpharma’s drug Kadian and pain patch Flector. Alpharma also has an experimental pain drug Embeda.
   
An FDA advisory panel recently stated that the morphine-based Embeda is somewhat less attractive to drug abusers, which the agency may require the company to claim on its label. King and partner Pain Therapeutics have a similar drug, Remoxy, pending approval. An advisory panel said Remoxy appeared less susceptible to abuse than other similar drugs such as Purdue Pharma’s Oxycontin.
   
According to a company statement, King expects to achieve cost savings of $50 million to $70 million in the second full year following completion of the transaction, mainly from general and administrative cost cuts and R&D savings, as well as avoiding the expense of new sales representatives for the launch of its new pain drug.
   
In 2007 King’s revenue was $2.7 billion and Alpharma’s revenue was $722 million.