Roche to acquire InterMune for $8.3 billion

BASEL, Switzerland — Biotech company Roche will be acquiring research and pharmaceutical company InterMune for $8.3 billion, it announced over the weekend. In the acquisition, Roche will be paying $74 per share of InterMune, which is a 36% premium over the company’s Aug. 22 closing price.

Roche plans to make an offer on the company by Aug. 29, at which point InterMune’s board will recommend that shareholders transfer their shares in the company to Roche.

With the acquisition, Roche is hoping to expand its development and research of treatment for lung diseases. InterMiune’s idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis treatment, Pirfenidone, received designation as a breakthrough therapy from the Food and Drug Administration in July, and a final approval or rejection will be given in November.

“We are very pleased that we reached this agreement with InterMune. Our offer provides significant value to InterMune’s shareholders and this acquisition will complement Roche’s strengths in pulmonary therapy,” Roche CEO Severin Schwan said. “We look forward to welcoming InterMune employees into the Roche Group and to making a difference for patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a devastating disease.”

After the acquisition takes place, InterMune employees will be transitioned to Roche’s organization, in anticipation of the launch of Pirfenidone.

“This merger recognizes the significant value created by our team’s commitment, hard work and execution for more than a decade to develop and commercialize treatment options for IPF patients and their families,” InterMune President Dan Welch said. “Roche shares our passion and commitment to the IPF community and to ensuring that pirfenidone is available as quickly as possible to patients in the United States, pending FDA approval. Roche’s global resources and scale will not only facilitate and accelerate our ability to deliver pirfenidone to more patients around the world, but also to realize our joint vision to bring additional innovative therapies to patients with respiratory diseases.”