A PYMNTS Company

EU: Sanofi beats Novo to buy Ablynx for €3.9b

By  |  January 29, 2018

French drugmaker Sanofi has agreed to buy Belgian biotech company Ablynx for €3.9 billion (US$4.8 billion), beating Novo Nordisk and marking its second big deal this month after buying Bioverativ.

    Get the Full Story

    Complete the form to unlock this article and enjoy unlimited free access to all PYMNTS content — no additional logins required.

    yesSubscribe to our daily newsletter, PYMNTS Today.

    By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.

    The deal is a further sign of accelerating mergers and acquisitions activity in the global biotech sector and comes after Ablynx rejected a €2.6 billion (US$3.2 billion) offer from Denmark’s Novo Nordisk.

    Sanofi said on Monday it would pay €45 (US$55.74) per share in cash for Ablynx, a premium of 21.2% over its closing price on Friday, January 26—and more than double the price before Novo went public with its initial offer.

    This month has seen a spike in multibillion-dollar deals in biotech, with US-based Celgene paying US$9 billion for cancer specialist Juno Therapeutics, and several experts predicting a bumper year for mergers.

    Full Content: Financial Times

    Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.