As­traZeneca's planned takeover of Alex­ion clears last reg­u­la­to­ry re­view, deal to close next week

The fi­nal reg­u­la­to­ry hur­dle for As­traZeneca’s mega-merg­er with Alex­ion Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals has been cleared, paving the way for the deal to close as soon as next week.

Britain’s fi­nan­cial watch­dog, The UK Com­pe­ti­tion & Mar­kets Au­thor­i­ty, has rub­ber stamped As­traZeneca’s $39 bil­lion takeover of the Boston-based rare dis­ease biotech, the com­pa­nies an­nounced Wednes­day morn­ing. As a re­sult, the trans­ac­tion is ex­pect­ed to close on Ju­ly 21, with Alex­ion shares $ALXN be­ing con­vert­ed to As­traZeneca stock $AZN and re­moved from Nas­daq the next day.

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