Italy’s Gentium accepts $1 billion takeover offer from Jazz Pharma

20 December 2013

Ireland-headquartered drugmaker Jazz Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: JAZZ) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Italy’s rare disease drug developer Gentium SpA (Nasdaq: GENT) for $57.00 per share or around $1 billion in total.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2014. The $57 per-share offer is a premium of 2.4% over Gentium's Thursday close of $55.65 on the Nasdaq. Jazz's shares were up 2% in extended trading, while Gentium’s shares rose 3%.

The main attraction to Jazz of Gentium, a developer of drugs for rare diseases, including orphan vascular diseases related to cancer treatments, is the company’s lead product, Defitelio (defibrotide), which gained European Commission approval in October for the treatment of severe hepatic veno-occlusive disease (VOD) in adults and children undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (The Pharma Letter October 11).

This article is accessible to registered users, to continue reading please register for free.  A free trial will give you access to exclusive features, interviews, round-ups and commentary from the sharpest minds in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology space for a week. If you are already a registered user please login. If your trial has come to an end, you can subscribe here.

Login to your account

Become a subscriber

 

£820

Or £77 per month

Subscribe Now
  • Unfettered access to industry-leading news, commentary and analysis in pharma and biotech.
  • Updates from clinical trials, conferences, M&A, licensing, financing, regulation, patents & legal, executive appointments, commercial strategy and financial results.
  • Daily roundup of key events in pharma and biotech.
  • Monthly in-depth briefings on Boardroom appointments and M&A news.
  • Choose from a cost-effective annual package or a flexible monthly subscription
The Pharma Letter is an extremely useful and valuable Life Sciences service that brings together a daily update on performance people and products. It’s part of the key information for keeping me informed

Chairman, Sanofi Aventis UK



Companies featured in this story

More ones to watch >


Today's issue

Company Spotlight





More Features in Pharmaceutical