Shire to pay $4.2 billion for rare disease firm ViroPharma

[riky]

Shire to pay $4.2 billion for rare disease firm ViroPharma

<p><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/shire-pay-4-2-billion-rare-disease-firm-110154748--finance.html"><img src="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/Q4LoPd.vGxtJ31dcioVThw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTg2O3E9NzU7dz0xMzA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2013-11-11T133954Z_1_CBRE9AA11YK00_RTROPTP_2_CYTOS.JPG" width="130" height="86" alt="A researcher works at the Cytos laboratory in Schlieren." align="left" title="A researcher works at the Cytos laboratory in Schlieren." border="0" /></a>By Paul Sandle LONDON (Reuters) - London-listed Shire is buying ViroPharma for $4.2 billion, its biggest deal yet to strengthen its portfolio of lucrative drugs to treat rare diseases, which are attracting increasing attention from drugs companies as patents expire on their older treatments. Several companies including France's Sanofi, according to reports, were interested in ViroPharma, which makes Cinryze for the treatment of immune disorder hereditary angioedema. Shire, which latched onto the rare disease drugs trend years before bigger rivals, said on Monday it had agreed to pay $50 a share in cash for ViroPharma, a 27 percent premium on Friday's closing price. Analysts at Morgan Stanley said that for Shire the deal &quot;cements strategy&quot;, and it could bolster earnings per share by 5-10 percent in 2014-2016.</p><br clear="all"/>

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