SmithKline Beecham to Buy Block Drug

British drug giant SmithKline Beecham said it’s buying U.S.-based Block Drug Co. for $1.24 billion, adding such brands as Sensodyne toothpaste and Poli-Grip denture adhesive to its consumer health-care portfolio, which includes Aquafresh toothpaste. The deal would secure SmithKline’s place among the world’s biggest toothpaste manufacturers, behind Colgate-Palmolive Co. and Procter & Gamble Co. SmithKline Beecham is offering $53 each for all of Block’s common shares. That is up from Block’s closing price of $50.63 a share Friday. Block shares rose 17% last week in anticipation of a deal. Shares of Block Drug rose $1.63 to close at $52.25 on Nasdaq, while SmithKline’s American depositary receipts fell $1.13 to close at $66.31 on the New York Stock Exchange. SmithKline said it had received commitments from a majority of Block shareholders to accept the offer. SmithKline Beecham had $4.1 billion worth of consumer health-care products sales in 1999, a third of its total revenue. Block Drug, based in Jersey City, N.J., earned $56.8 million on sales of $864.3 million in the year ended March 31.