Year’s biggest pharma deal: AstraZeneca to buy US pharma Alexion for $39 Billion
The pharma sector is currently in the limelight owing to the advancements in COVID-19 vaccine development. Amidst vaccine reports, British pharma company AstraZeneca said that it would be buying US pharma giant Alexion for a whopping $39 billion to amplify its immunology work on Saturday. This is the year’s biggest deal in the pharmaceutical industry.
AstraZeneca’s chief executive Pascal Soriot took over in 2012 and has taken the company to great heights in terms of cancer therapy. He stated that, as a leader in complement biology, Alexion had changed patients’ lives suffering from rare diseases.
The year’s biggest pharma deal for $39 billion is expected to close in the next year’s third quarter, with Alexion shareholders in possession of 15% of the resultant company. This will push AstraZeneca into prominence in the area of treating blood disorders.
Start of an exciting new chapter
Ludwig Hanston, the chief executive of Alexion, said that the deal indicates the start of an exciting turn for the company. He spoke about Alexion’s merits, such as innovative ideas to cure rare diseases and a strong portfolio and manufacturing skills
that a talented workforce portrays. The pharma industry will greatly benefit from the combined expertise of the two companies in cancer therapy and blood disorder treatment.The maker of the year’s biggest pharma deal, AstraZeneca, along with Oxford University, has developed Covishield as its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, being the second company in the UK to do so after Pfizer-Biontech. After its initial trials were questioned, the company is yet to receive approval for the vaccine. The Russian vaccine-makers recently approached the company to combine the vaccine components for greater efficacy. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is expected to be available in India by the first half of 2021.
