Jim Young/Reuters
Allergan is best known for the wrinkle-smoothing injection Botox.
- AbbVie is buying Botox-maker Allergan in a $63 billion deal, the companies said on Tuesday.
- The deal would combine AbbVie, which makes the blockbuster drug Humira, with Allergan, which has been facing pressure from activists for more than a year to improve performance.
- Bankers from Morgan Stanley and PJT Partners advised AbbVie on the transaction, while JPMorgan advised Allergan.
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Another massive pharmaceutical merger is underway.
The $63 billion deal combines North Chicago-based AbbVie, which makes the world's best-selling drug Humira, with Dublin-based Allergan, which has been struggling in the face of competition for some of its biggest products including the wrinkle-smoothing treatment Botox.
It's the first major acquisition AbbVie has attempted since its takeover of Stemcentrx in 2016, which it has since said was a flop. Prior to that, in 2015, AbbVie acquired Pharmacyclics for $21 billion, gaining the blood cancer treatment Imbruvica.
AbbVie and Allergan each have a bench of investment bankers advising on the transaction. Here's what we know about them, based on company filings linked to the transaction.
Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley was the lead financial adviser for AbbVie on the deal. The team included Clint Gartin, Michael Boublik, Joe Modisett, and David Kitterick.
Gartin is a veteran healthcare banker who's now chairman of investment banking at Morgan Stanley, and he was also involoved in Bristol-Myers Squibb's deal for Celgene in January, Reuters reports.
Boublik is the chairman of M&A in the Americas while Modisett is head of US healthcare investment banking, according to his LinkedIn profile. Kitterick is a lawyer-turned-banker based in London.
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PJT Partners
PJT Partners, a boutique investment bank in New York, also advised AbbVie on the deal. The names of the PJT bankers on the deal weren't disclosed.
PJT was founded after former Morgan Stanley banker Paul Taubman left the bank in 2012. In 2015, it merged with assets from Blackstone's financial- and strategic-advisory services, and now operates as a publicly traded company.
In November, Business Insider reported that former star Goldman Sachs pharmaceutical analyst Jami Rubin was headed to the bank.
Rubin has been an analyst since the early 1990s and has famously pressed major pharmaceutical companies on their plans for mergers and acquisitions. She joined Goldman Sachs in 2008 after working at Morgan Stanley and became a partner in 2012.
JPMorgan
JPMorgan was the financial adviser for Allergan. The team on the deal includes Jeremy Meilman, Dwayne Lysaght, Thomas Monaghan, and David Connern.
Lysaght is a UK takeover specialist, Meilman is a managing director at the bank. Monaghan has advised on other big healthcare deals such as UnitedHealth Group's Surgical Care acquisition and the 2011 merger of Express Scripts and Medco. Connern is a UK-based banker focused on UK and Ireland corporate finance and M&A.
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- Botox is made from the deadliest toxin on earth. Then we started injecting it in our faces.
- The maker of Botox wants to get more millennials hooked on its wrinkle-smoothing injections and has hired a fashion expert to lead its efforts
