Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. will expand its footprint in the U.S. oncology market with the $4.66 billion purchase of Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc. The deal will add one potential blockbuster in lung cancer and another already on-the-market therapy.
Takeda will pay $24 a share for Ariad, the companies said in a statement Monday, 75 percent more than its Friday close of $13.74. The deal will give it Ariad's drug brigatinib, an experimental therapy being tested in lung cancer, and Iclusig, which is estimated to have brought in $170.5 million in 2016.
"Whether the premium of over 70 percent for the acquisition is justified depends on synergies ahead," Morgan Stanley MUFG analysts wrote in a research note about the Ariad acquisition, pointing to strong competition from other top drugs in the cancer space. Takeda said in the statement that the deal is expected to add to its earnings by the fiscal year ending March 2019.