AstraZeneca forking out $39 billion to buy rare diseases firm

13 December 2020

British pharma major AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) looks set to make the biggest pharma M&A deal of 2020, on Saturday announcing that it plans to expand further into the rare diseases sector with the acquisition of USA-based Alexion Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ALXN).

Alexion shareholders will receive $60 in cash and 2.1243 AstraZeneca American Depositary Shares (ADSs) for each Alexion share. Based on AstraZeneca's reference average ADR price of $54.14, this implies a total consideration to Alexion shareholders of $39 billion or $175 per share.

AstraZeneca's shares fell 5.1% at 7,676.40 pence when tradung started this morning, while Alexion stock rocketed more than 30% to $157.55 pre-market.

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