Takeda’s Shire takeover could herald new era of pharma M&A
Pharmaphorum Media Limited | January 09, 2019
Takeda has officially taken over the Shire in a deal that could re-establish the trend for mega-mergers in big pharma. The merger was approved yesterday in a court hearing in Jersey, where the Shire was officially based, although it was listed on the London Stock Exchange and domiciled in Ireland for tax purposes. As the deal went through, Takeda was instantly transformed into one of the top 10 pharma companies in the world. But the deal was also seen as a portent that more big pharma M&A could be on its way after a period of several years where drug companies favored smaller “bolt-on” deals to boost their pipelines with drugs from smaller biotechs.
The Shire itself was a proponent of this strategy after it snapped up a string of biotechs to gain access to promising rare disease drugs over the last decade or so. Bristol-Myers Squibb’s announcement that it is to acquire Celgene suggests that the Takeda deal may herald a period of consolidation in the industry through larger mergers. Takeda’s CEO Christophe Weber got the deal across the line despite protests from a small but vocal group of shareholders concerned about repaying the bank loan of more than $30 billion needed to finance the transaction.