BASEL, SWITZERLAND: Roche Holding AG has agreed to buy US biotech company, InterMune Inc, for $8.3 billion in cash, marking the latest multibillion-dollar deal in a consolidating pharmaceutical sector. The Swiss drugmaker said, it would pay $74.00 a share through a tender offer for InterMune. The acquisition, which has been recommended by the boards of both companies, is the largest by Roche since 2009, when it bought out the remaining stake it did not already own in US group Genentech for around $47 billion.
According to Chief Executive Severin Schwan, the deal would allow Roche to broaden and strengthen its respiratory portfolio and there is a good strategic and cultural fit between Roche and the California-based biotech firm.
“For us at Roche, this transaction is a good example of a value-creating bolt-on acquisition; we focus on targeted acquisitions that really compliment our portfolio rather than trying to diversify or going into mega mergers,” said Schwan to Reuters News.
The deal is a further step by Roche to diversify away from its reliance on cancer drugs, where it is the world leader, by expanding into other disease areas, such as respiratory medicine. However, the Swiss group’s efforts to produce successful non-cancer drugs from its own labs have been mixed, with setbacks in recent years for experimental drugs against heart disease, diabetes and schizophrenia.
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