Shire Pharma to buy TKT in $1.6M deal

Shire Pharmaceuticals of the UK says that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire US firm Transkaryotic Therapies, in an all-cash transaction valued at $37.00 per outstanding TKT share, or approximately $1.6 billion. The offer price is a 44% premium to TKT's four-week average share price of $25.77. The UK market's reaction to the news was to push Shire's stock down 26.5 pence to 580.0 pence in afternoon trading on April 21, following the announcement.

The acquisition is consistent with Shire's strategy and highly complementary to its business model to develop and market products for specialty pharmaceutical markets, says the UK firm.

Shire explains the "strong strategic and business fit" as being that TKT's products are sold by small, focused sales forces working with specialist physicians; it builds on Shire's European and US specialty sales and marketing capabilities and leverages its experience in the renal and hematology therapy areas.