Stiff-armed by a stub­born Acte­lion, J&J takes its check book and walks away, leav­ing an open­ing for Sanofi

And then it was over.

J&J kept it short and sweet this evening, an­nounc­ing it has end­ed talks with Acte­lion about a pos­si­ble buy­out. “John­son & John­son was not able to reach an agree­ment that it be­lieved would cre­ate ad­e­quate val­ue for its share­hold­ers,” the com­pa­ny said.

The state­ment ends two weeks of spec­u­la­tion about an ac­qui­si­tion, as the re­luc­tant Swiss biotech stub­born­ly held off on a deal as it came up with some sug­ges­tions about how it could re­main in­de­pen­dent, and still have J&J ac­quire it.

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