Brain Markison, King’s ceo, is disappointed that Dean Mitchell, Alpharma’s ceo, hasn’t responded to his initial offer $1.4 billion offer, which amounted to $33 a share. So Markison raised the bid to $37, or $1.6 billion, and is going directly to shareholders.

The unsolicited cash bid is a move to create a bigger specialty drugmaker and expand a nascent effor to develop meds for treating pain. King, you may recall, suffered a huge setback last year when a federal court invalidated its compound patent on Altace, which generated about $700 million annually in US sales. The press release contains the letter sent this morning to Mitchell…

Mr. Dean J. Mitchell
President and Chief Executive Officer
Alpharma Inc.
440 Route 22 East
Bridgewater, NJ 08807

Dear Dean:

I am disappointed that you and your Board of Directors have rejected our enhanced offer.

In light of your decision, we have decided to publicly disclose our latest proposal to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Alpharma Class A Common Stock at a price of $37 per share in cash and to take this offer directly to your stockholders…

This price represents a premium of 67% over the closing price of the Alpharma Class A Common Stock on August 4, 2008, the date of King’s initial private written proposal to Alpharma, and premium of 54% over the closing price on August 21, 2008, the last trading day prior to public disclosure of King’s initial proposal. We believe this is a compelling offer that your stockholders will find extremely attractive.

Since early July of 2008, I have attempted to engage Alpharma’s management and Board of Directors in a substantive discussion of the merits of a negotiated business combination between King and Alpharma, without result.

In our latest private offer of $37 per share in cash, we stated that we were prepared to enter into a merger agreement containing a “go-shop” provision whereby Alpharma would be permitted, after signing, to actively solicit third-party offers during an agreed-upon period of time. You have also declined this offer.

While we would prefer to work cooperatively with you and your Board to complete a negotiated transaction, our Board of Directors has authorized management to commence a tender offer to purchase all of the outstanding shares of Class A Common Stock of Alpharma for $37 per share in cash, which we intend to do promptly.

As you know we have retained Credit Suisse and Wachovia Securities as our financial advisors and Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP as our legal advisor to assist in completing this transaction. King and its advisors are ready to meet with you and your representatives to complete the transaction promptly.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Very truly yours,

Brian Markison
Chairman of the Board,
President and Chief Executive Officer

cc: To the attention of Alpharma Inc.’s Board of Directors

Mr. Peter G. Tombros, Chairman of the Board
Mr. Finn-Berg Jacobsen, Director
Mr. Peter Ladell, Director
Mr. Ramon Perez, Director
Mr. David U’Prichard, Director