Actavis issues regulatory filing to comply with Irish company-takeover rules

PARSIPPANY, N.J. — Actavis is continuing to pursue a plan to buy Irish drug maker Warner Chilcott, as the U.S.-based company announced Tuesday its total number of shares and share-purchase options in order to comply with Ireland's merger-and-acquisition rules.

Actavis listed about 133.3 million ordinary shares, 1.5 billion restricted shares and 1.26 options to purchase ordinary shares.

The company, which is the world's third-largest generic drug maker, said Friday that it was in talks to buy Warner Chilcott, but that no agreement had been reached and that it wouldn't issue further comment about the matter.

Last month, a proposal by Canadian drug maker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International to buy Actavis for more than $13 billion was put off when the two companies failed to reach an agreement.

In other news, Actavis said it canceled its presentation at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Healthcare Conference, which had been scheduled to take place Tuesday in Las Vegas.