Shire to Buy Transkaryotic Therapies for $1.6 Billion

UK drugmaker Shire Pharmaceuticals has announced plans to acquire biopharmaceutical firm Transkaryotic Therapies (TKT) for $1.6 billion in a deal that will combine the firms' strengths in both small molecule drugs and biologic protein therapeutics.

Under the agreement, Shire will pay $37 in cash for each share of TKT's common stock, representing a 44 percent increase over the $25.77 average closing share of the stock during the last four weeks. The deal is subject to regulatory clearance and approval of stockholders from both companies.

The acquisition complements Shire's business model to develop and market products for specialty pharmaceutical markets, Shire said in a statement. Through the deal, Shire would acquire two TKT approved products -- Replagal, an enzyme replacement therapy approved to treat patients with Fabry disease, and Dynepo, an erythropoietin (EPO) product used for the treatment of kidney disease-related anemia. Replagal had sales of $77 million last year. TKT had planned to introduce Dynepo into Europe in 2006, which has a $2.3 billion EPO market. The deal also would give Shire two late-stage clinical development candidates with rapid development timelines, Shire said.