17 April 2018Biotechnology

Shire to sell oncology business for $2.4bn

Biotech company Shire has revealed plans to sell its oncology business for $2.4 billion to France-based Servier.

Pharmaceutical company Servier will acquire the business, which generated revenues of $262 million last year, according to a press release published yesterday, April 16.

Shire’s oncology business includes Oncaspar (pegaspargase), a component of multi-agent treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), and Calaspargase Pegol (Cal-PEG), which is under US Food and Drug Administration review for the treatment of ALL.

The move comes while Shire itself is being circled by Japan-based Takeda, which is considering plans to acquire the company.

In March, Takeda confirmed it was considering an offer at a “preliminary and exploratory stage” but that it hadn’t approached the Shire board. Takeda has until April 25 to make an offer under the UK code on takeovers and mergers.

Flemming Ornskov, CEO of Shire, said that while the oncology business has delivered high growth and profitability, it is not core to Shire’s longer-term strategy.

“We will continue to evaluate our portfolio for opportunities to unlock further value and sharpen our focus on rare disease leadership with selective disposals of non-strategic assets,” he said.

Shire’s board is considering returning the proceeds of the sale to shareholders through a shareholder-approved share buyback after the current offer period regarding Takeda’s possible bid for Shire concludes.

Olivier Laureau, Servier president, added: “As an essential step in the evolution of the group, this acquisition allows us to establish a direct commercial presence in the US, the world’s leading pharmaceuticals market, and to strengthen our portfolio of marketed products in the territories where Servier is already present.”

Since the beginning of 2018, there has been a flood of merger and acquisition activity.

In January, Celgene said it would acquire Juno Therapeutics for $9 billion, in a bid to discover and develop “transformative medicines for patients with incurable blood cancers”.

This was followed by Sanofi’s announcement that it would buy biotech firm Ablynx for approximately €3.9 billion ($4.8 billion).

Johnson & Johnson recently stated that it would sell LifeScan, its blood glucose monitoring unit, for $2.1 billion to a private investment firm.

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More on this story

Asia-Pacific
3 April 2018   Japan-based Takeda has revealed that it is considering plans to acquire biopharmaceutical company Shire.
Asia-Pacific
23 April 2018   Japan-based Takeda has upped its offer to buy Ireland-headquartered Shire for the fourth time, raising its bid to approximately £44 billion.
Big Pharma
8 May 2018   Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda has agreed to acquire biotech company Shire for $62 billion.

More on this story

Asia-Pacific
3 April 2018   Japan-based Takeda has revealed that it is considering plans to acquire biopharmaceutical company Shire.
Asia-Pacific
23 April 2018   Japan-based Takeda has upped its offer to buy Ireland-headquartered Shire for the fourth time, raising its bid to approximately £44 billion.
Big Pharma
8 May 2018   Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda has agreed to acquire biotech company Shire for $62 billion.