Takeda has completed its £46 billion-acquisition of Shire, a deal that took just eight months to see through from announcement to close.
The merge has created a a global, value-based, R&D-driven biopharmaceutical leader headquartered in Japan, making the 237-year-old drug company one of the world’s ten biggest pharmaceutical companies.
Shares have dropped around 20% since the deal was first acknowledged in April, but rose 2% on Tuesday after the confirmation of the deal’s closure in a statement.
The newly-created pharma giant, finished months ahead of schedule, will be focused on four therapeutic areas of oncology, gastroenterology, neuroscience, rare diseases and plasma-derived therapies.
Takeda announced the deal in May 2018 to buy the firm, after having its merger proposals previously turned down four times by Shire, and then at least 88% of Takeda shareholder votes backed the proposal in December 2018.
Christophe Weber, president and chief executive officer of Takeda, said: ”We are delighted that the acquisition was approved by an overwhelming majority of our shareholders at Takeda’s extraordinary general meeting on December 5th, 2018. We are also pleased to have completed the acquisition several months earlier than expected, which was enabled through the hard work of our respective organisations and the smooth receipt of regulatory clearances.”
“We appreciate the support of our employees, partners and shareholders throughout the process. This marks a significant moment in Takeda’s history and is an exciting step forward as we accelerate our transformation journey to deliver highly-innovative medicines to patients around the world with expanded scale and geographical footprint.”
