Sanofi to Buy Ablynx for $4.85 Billion -- Update
29 Janeiro 2018 - 8:54AM
Dow Jones News
By Noemie Bisserbe
PARIS -- Sanofi SA said Monday it would buy Belgian biotech
Ablynx NV for EUR3.9 billion ($4.85 billion), the French
drugmaker's second acquisition this month after purchasing U.S.
hemophilia specialist Bioverativ Inc.
Sanofi will pay EUR45 a share for Ablynx, which earlier this
month rejected a EUR2.6 billion offer from Denmark's Novo Nordisk
A/S. Novo Nordisk said Monday it won't be making a revised
proposal.
The French company has been under pressure from investors to
complete a large acquisition after it lost out to Pfizer Inc. in a
bidding war for cancer-drug maker Medivation in 2016 and talks with
Swiss biotech Actelion collapsed last year after the two firms
failed to hash out an agreement. Johnson & Johnson agreed to
take over Actelion for $30 billion last year.
"We can still do additional bolt on acquisitions," Chief
Executive Olivier Brandicourt said on a call with reporters, adding
that the company had a general target of EUR20 billion for
acquisitions.
The acquisition of Ablynx will bolster Sanofi's rare-blood
disease drug portfolio, at a time when it is under pressure to
launch new innovative medicines to make up for declining sales of
its blockbuster Lantus insulin.
Ablynx is developing a new class of drugs made from the
unusually small antibodies produced by mammals in the camel family.
It injects llamas with proteins carefully designed to stimulate an
immune response with specific antibodies. These antibodies, which
are around a 10th the size of human antibodies, can reach cells
that otherwise would be inaccessible.
Sanofi said the acquisition builds on an existing partnership
and that the company intends to maintain and support the Ablynx
science center in Ghent, Belgium.
The transaction is expected to close by the end of the second
quarter.
Earlier this month, Sanofi agreed to buy hemophilia drugmaker
Bioverativ for more than $11.5 billion, its biggest deal for seven
years.
Several analysts said the Bioverativ deal looked expensive,
given uncertainties in the hemophilia market because of the launch
of new treatments.
Sanofi shares were flat at EUR73.48 on Monday in early
trading.
Write to Noemie Bisserbe at noemie.bisserbe@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 29, 2018 05:39 ET (10:39 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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