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).

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