Bergen Brunswig Drops Bid to Buy European Firm

ORANGE — Faced with a deadline to raise their offer, Bergen Brunswig Corp. and a French company on Friday dropped their $435-million bid to acquire Europe’s largest distributor of drugs.

Bergen Brunswig, the second-largest U.S. pharmaceuticals company, joined with Cooperation Pharmaceutique Francaise in April to bid for Office Commercial Pharmaceutique. Bergen Brunswig’s share of the acquisition price would have been about $90 million.

The ante increased when Gehe AG, a German drug distributor, offered $490 million earlier this week for the company, topping the Bergen-Cooperation bid by $55 million. Neil Dimick, Bergen Brunswig executive vice president, said the partners decided Thursday night to withdraw their bid. After a counteroffer is made, French law requires that a rival bidder respond within five days.

“The bottom line is that it was just getting too expensive,” said Michael Sgro, analyst at NatWest Securities, an investment bank in New York. “I think we will continue to see Bergen embark on an acquisition program, just not in this case.”