Take­da grabs Ari­ad, ex­pands on­col­o­gy port­fo­lio in $5.2B buy­out

Take­da has tak­en the next step in its glob­al re­struc­tur­ing, bag­ging Ari­ad Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals for $5.2 bil­lion and pay­ing a whop­ping 74% pre­mi­um for its stock.

The deal gives Japan’s Take­da a big­ger can­cer drug port­fo­lio, with an al­ready ap­proved Iclusig on the mar­ket and a loom­ing de­ci­sion on briga­tinib, which Take­da be­lieves has block­buster po­ten­tial.

Ari­ad has been mak­ing progress since long­time CEO Har­vey Berg­er was forced out in the spring of 2015, a move trig­gered by a brew­ing share­hold­er re­volt that broke out af­ter Iclusig was briefly jerked out of the mar­ket and then al­lowed back on with a more lim­it­ed reach. The com­pa­ny fin­ished its rolling sub­mis­sion for briga­tinib last sum­mer, look­ing to get an OK to sell the ALK in­hibitor to pa­tients who no longer re­spond to Pfiz­er’s Xalko­ri.

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