AstraZeneca has completed the acquisition of biopharmaceutical company Alexion Pharmaceuticals in a deal valued at $39bn.
The latest move comes after the receipt of clearance from the UK Competition and Markets Authority for the acquisition, this month.
AstraZeneca has secured complete clearances from regulatory authorities in the UK, US, Brazil, Canada, Russia, Colombia, Morocco, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan.
The acquisition was first announced in December last year to improve AstraZeneca’s scientific presence in immunology through the addition of Alexion’s strong pipeline and innovative complement-technology platforms.
For the deal, AstraZeneca has paid nearly $13.3bn in cash to Alexion shareholders and 236,321,411 new AstraZeneca shares (about 94% of which will be represented by new AstraZeneca American Depositary Shares (ADSs)).
AstraZeneca chief financial officer Marc Dunoyer said: “I am delighted to be working alongside my new colleagues at Alexion where we will continue to discover, develop and deliver medicines that change the lives of people suffering from rare diseases.
“We look forward to also applying Alexion’s complement-biology platform across areas of AstraZeneca’s broader early-stage pipeline and, significantly, to the extraordinary opportunity to extend existing and future rare disease medicines to patients in many countries where AstraZeneca already has a strong presence.”
Alexion is focused on the discovery, development, and commercialisation of therapies for patients and families affected with rare diseases.
The company’s portfolio includes Soliris (eculizumab), an anti-complement component 5 (C5) monoclonal antibody; and Ultomiris (ravulizumab), a second-generation C5 monoclonal antibody.
Now, the new business unit named ‘Alexion, The AstraZeneca Rare Disease’ will be created with headquarters in Boston, US and focus on rare diseases.