Servi­er buys Shire's on­col­o­gy unit for $2.4B in the run-up to Takeda's fi­nal buy­out of­fer — if it makes one

If Take­da comes knock­ing on Shire’s door for what would be the largest ac­qui­si­tion in 2018, it won’t get the whole pack­age it was an­gling for.

Shire an­nounced it’s sell­ing its on­col­o­gy busi­ness to French im­muno-on­col­o­gy com­pa­ny Servi­er for $2.4 bil­lion. The deal comes af­ter Take­da ex­pressed in­ter­est for a com­plete takeover, wooed an­a­lysts for sup­port and re­port­ed­ly sought loans to fund the ef­fort — and just days ahead of the April 25 dead­line for the Japan­ese drug­mak­er to make a bid.

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