Takeda mulls Shire acquisition bid
Japan-based Takeda has revealed that it is considering plans to acquire biopharmaceutical company Shire.
On Wednesday, March 28, Takeda confirmed that it was considering an offer at a “preliminary and exploratory stage” and that it hadn’t approached the Shire board.
Takeda said that the potential transaction presents an opportunity to build on its current strong momentum and create a “truly global, value-based Japanese biopharmaceutical leader”.
According to the company, the acquisition of Shire would strengthen Takeda’s core therapeutic areas of oncology, gastroenterology and neuroscience and balance Takeda’s geographic focus to align with the market opportunity in the US.
Takeda has until April 25 to make an offer.
However, the merits of the acquisition have been questioned, with shares in Takeda sliding by 7% on Thursday, March 29, according to Reuters.
There has been a spate of mergers and acquisitions activity already in 2018.
In January, US-based Celgene announced its plan to acquire Juno Therapeutics, in a bid to discover and develop “transformative medicines for patients with incurable blood cancers”.
In the same month, Sanofi revealed that it would acquire biotech firm Ablynx for approximately €3.9 billion ($4.8 billion).
Two weeks ago, Johnson & Johnson announced that it would sell LifeScan, its blood glucose monitoring unit, for $2.1 billion to a private investment firm.
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