As a sales rep for this company the thought of taking over Salix and being in the GI arena is exciting. I'm sure we could increase sales on the few drugs they have that are worth promoting vs. what has been done already. We have more resources and that should produce more sales.
But as a share holder I'm not as convinced that we should be overpaying for Salix. As you mention above they would be bringing very little revenue. The main product Xifaxan is already heavily promoted off label and from what I've heard almost 60% of the sales of that product are for IBS not the Hepatic Encephalopathy that it is indicated for. When it is mentioned that we are buying Salix pipeline- understand that a big portion (about all of it) is based around Xifaxan and IBS. If physicians are already using it for the IBS indication how much more will they use it when it is indicated. The girl I talked to that works there says almost all of her sales are for IBS already! Just doesn't seem like a company that we should be overpaying for. On the Salix board people are saying $220 a share- that seems way over priced. I hope our BOD doesn't make a hasty deal.
