The Haney Group a boutique equity research and management firm based in Hong Kong founded by a diverse private wealth consortium of financial professionals, with a combined knowledge of the stock markets, tax legislation, legal compliance and market analysis. Priding themselves in giving the very best service to their institutional investors, high net worth individuals and private investors today brought to the attention of its clients recent developments within the pharma industry.

The deal, which could be announced as early as this week, will see New York-based Forest, which has a market value of $19.3 billion add the Alzheimer’s drug Namenda and blood-pressure medication Bystolic, to Actavis’s range of pharmaceuticals. The deal is seen as a win for billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who gained a board seat at Forest in 2012 and is the second-largest shareholder.

In January, the makers of the well selling Alzheimer medication Namenda, Forrest Laboratories Inc agreed to buy the closely held Aptalis Pharma in a $2.9 billion cash deal. The purchase being the first by the company since its new CEO Brent Saunders took the helm on October 1 last year and is in response to declining sales revenues from losses of patent protection. With the expiry on patent projections, Forrest’s number one selling drug, the antidepressant medication Lexapro saw sales freefall to $194.9 million last year, down from $2.13 billion for the year before.

“Given the rather smart move by Forrest in January with the purchase of Aptalis, it is of no big surprise that Carl Icahn’s desire to be bought out by Actavis has come to pass. Actavis has been the most active buyer of pharmaceutical companies in the last three years, making $14.4 billion of acquisitions, including last year’s purchase of Warner Chilcott Plc for $9.2 billion that saw the company expand in women’s health and urology, which were new fields for them,” announced Richard Fong a Senior Analyst at The Haney Group.

If the deal between the two drug makers goes through, Forest Laboratories CEO Brent Saunders is expected to lead the combined company. The former CEO of Bausch & Lomb Inc, Saunders took the helm of Forest in September last year with support from Icahn and one of the first orders of business addressed was the$2.9 billion purchase of Aptalis Pharma Inc a move designed to add treatments for gastrointestinal ailments and cystic fibrosis to Forrest’s range.

“Nothing really ever happens in a vacuum, especially when it comes to the pharmaceutical industry. Icahn’s influence can be seen at every salient stage of this process, from the choice of Saunders as CEO at Forrest, to the purchase of Aptalis gaining Namenda, the prize that Actavis would be willing to pay handsomely for. It has been a very successful venture again for Icahn, we are currently putting together a number of options within this area to best suit the needs of our clients,” concluded Richard from The Haney Group.