Japan’s Otsuka To Buy U.S. Cancer Firm Astex For $886 Million

Circle Connections: Mergers & Acquisitions Japanese drugmaker Otsuka Holdings Co has agreed to buy Astex Pharmaceuticals Inc for about $886 million to tap cancer drugs under development by the U.S. biotechnology company. The move comes as Otsuka seeks to increase revenue streams as patents for its mainstay Abilify schizophrenia treatment will begin to expire. Large pharmaceutical companies facing such patent losses have increasingly been looking to acquire smaller biotech firms to gain access to new drugs that could bolster income, with cancer therapy an especially hot area for deal-making. Amgen Inc last month struck the fifth-largest biotechnology . . .