A battle for Frazer, Pennsylvania–based Cephalon ended in early May when Petach Tikva's Teva flashed a $6.8 billion tender, trumping Valeant Pharmaceuticals' $5.7 billion unsolicited buyout offer. Cephalon and Teva boards unanimously approved the deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter, and Mississauga, Ontario–based Valeant withdrew their offer, which was 12% below the Israeli company's bid. “Teva seems more interested in keeping Cephalon's pipeline rather than rationalizing the pipeline and divesting the elements,” says senior research analyst Eric Schmidt, of New York's Cowen Group, who believes Valeant would have focused on cost-cutting and the laying off of some of Cephalon's 4,000 worldwide employees. “I do think the Teva outcome is better than the Valeant transaction.” Cephalon's pipeline of central nervous system, oncology and pain candidates includes small cell lung cancer drug Obatoclax (GX15-070) a pan-B-cell lymphoma 2 inhibitor, in phase 2, and Cinquil (reslizumab) a humanized monoclonal antibody against interleukin-5 for severe asthma, in phase 3. Among Cephalon's marketed products are Provigil (sparlon) for excessive sleepiness, which accounted for 41% of 2010 net sales, but loses exclusivity next year, and Treanda for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia, that loses exclusivity in 2015. Interest in Cephalon followed the death of chairman and CEO, Frank Baldino, Jr., who founded the company in 1987. “Ever since Cephalon lost its CEO to illness last December, it's sort of had a target on its back,” Schmidt says.