Amgen has agreed to buy Horizon Therapeutics for $28.3bn, including debt, after the California-based biotech won a three-way race to secure a new pipeline of drugs for rare autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
Horizon shareholders will receive $116.50 per share in cash, a premium of nearly 50 per cent to where the shares were trading late last month when it first emerged that the company was in sale talks.
The deal comes at a time when the valuation of healthcare stocks has dropped dramatically, and is the largest transaction in the sector this year.
Horizon’s assets, which include its blockbuster thyroid eye disease treatment Tepezza, had also attracted interest from Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi.
“The acquisition of Horizon is a compelling opportunity for Amgen . . . the potential new medicines in Horizon’s pipeline strongly complement our own R&D portfolio,” said Robert Bradway, chair and chief executive of Amgen. “Horizon will drive growth in Amgen’s revenue and non-GAAP earnings per share, and is expected to be accretive from 2024.”
The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2023, according to the companies.