Johnson and Johnson announces agreement

Johnson & Johnson has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Mentor Corporation.

The deal will see the purchase go ahead for $1.07 billion (720 million pounds) in a cash tender offer of $31 per share.

Mentor is expected to operate as a stand-alone business unit, reporting through Ethicon – a provider of suture, mesh and other products for surgical procedures.

Alex Gorsky, company group chairman for Johnson & Johnson, said: “The addition of Mentor ? expands our capacity to provide physicians with products that can restore patients’ appearance, self-esteem and quality of life.”

He went on to say Ethicon produces evidence-based medicine and brings “the highest standards of quality to the aesthetic and reconstructive medical device category”.

Last week, Johnson & Johnson’s new drug application for ceftobiprole was rejected by the US Food and Drug Administration.

It followed an initial approval in May 2007, with the agency additionally asking for more information in March this year.

The product is an antibiotic for the treatment of diabetic foot infections and complicated skin and skin-structure infections.

Based in New Brunswick, US, Johnson & Johnson has more than 250 operating companies in 57 countries and employs 119,400 people.