Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. is Canada’s largest drug maker. The company has announced that it has made a hostile bid of $5.7 billion to acquire Cephalon Inc. or $73 a share in cash.

Cephalon is the Frazer and Pennsylvania-based maker of sleep and pain drugs. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. has offered Cephalon to present a 24% premium to yesterday’s closing price of $58.75. If pursued, this would count to be the largest hostile takeover in the industry since Sanofi-Aventis SA bid for Genzyme Corp. last year. Cephalon’s shares rose to $72.89 after the close of the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Valeant merged with Biovail Corp. in 2010. The company said on Feb. 1 that they are planning to buy Zug, Switzerland-based PharmaSwiss SA for $480 million and are also looking forward to an expansion in Europe. In January, Chief Executive Officer J. Michael Pearson said Valeant would seek acquisitions to expand its markets globally.

Regarding the situation, Corey Davis, an Analyst with Jefferies & Co. in New York, said in a telephone interview yesterday that “Hostile takeovers in the drug industry are “unusual, but Valeant is an unusual company. They don’t believe in R&D, which is kind of anti- pharma. They are ultra-aggressive in acquisitions”.