Genzyme (Nasdaq: GENZ) has moved one step closer to its comeback. The company announced today that it had met its deadline for moving the fill-and-finish activities for drugs sold in the U.S. out of its beleaguered Allston, Mass., plant.

The deadline was part of a consent decree from the Food and Drug Administration. If Genzyme hadn't met the goal, the FDA could have imposed fines of 18.5% of revenue on the products. One would think putting a drug in a vial and slapping a label on it wouldn't be that hard, but Genzyme's machinery was leaving bits of rubber and metal in the drug vials. And that's in addition to the viral contamination Genzyme also experienced. A consent decree was certainly warranted.

The fill-and-finish activities were moved in part to Genzyme's plant in Ireland and in part to Hospira (NYSE: HSP), which Genzyme contracted to complete the manufacturing of some of its drugs. As part of the consent decree, Genzyme still needs to move the fill-and-finish activities for drugs sold outside the U.S. out of the Allston plant by the end of next August.

Moving the manufacturing is an incremental step, but it's one that should give investors more confidence that a suitor might be willing to pay up for the drugmaker. sanofi-aventis (NYSE: SNY) has offered $69 per share, below what Genzyme is currently trading for. So far, Sanofi hasn't budged and a white knight hasn't been found, although there have been rumors that Takeda, GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK), Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), and Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) have taken a look.

More importantly, getting back on track means that the company won't fall as far if Sanofi walks away and the other rumors dry up. Remember, Genzyme was a $54 stock back in July before the Sanofi rumors started. Now that Genzyme is almost back to full production and meeting its consent decree deadlines, the stock should be worth more than $54 even if a big pharma isn't willing to pay the whopping $89 Genzyme thinks it's worth.

I'm not ready to recommend buying the stock yet; buying with an acquisition as your main investment thesis never seems like a smart move to me. But the risk-reward profile certainly looks better than it did yesterday.

Matt Koppenheffer thinks dividend investing is a fad and investors will head back to high-growth stocks.