Roche To Buy InterMune For $8.3 Bln - Update

(RTTNews) - Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche Holding AG (RHHBY.PK, ROG.SW, RO.SW) has agreed to buy US biotech company InterMune Inc. (ITMN) for $8.3 billion in cash, thus expanding Roche's respiratory product portfolio.

Roche has agreed to pay InterMune shareholders $74.00 a share in cash. This represents a premium of 38 percent to InterMune's closing price on Friday, August 22, and 63 percent premium to its August 12 price.

The boards of both InterMune and Roche have approved the deal, and expects to close it this year itself. Roche expects the acquisition to be neutral to its core earnings per share in 2015 and accretive from 2016 onwards.

Brisbane, California-based InterMune expects to get FDA approval for pirfenidone in 2014. Pirfenidone treats idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis that causes scarring in the lungs and makes it difficult to breathe. Pirfenidone has already been approved and marketed in the European Union and Canada as Esbriet since 2011 and 2012, respectively. The U.S. FDA had rejected the drug in 2010, and asked for an additional trial to support the efficacy of pirfenidone. The target date for the pirfenidone NDA is November 23.

Commenting on the acquisition, Roche's 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."

RHHBY closed Friday's trading at $36.32, down $0.12 or 0.33%, on the OTC markets.

ITMN closed Friday's trading at $53.80, up $0.59 or 1.11%, on the Nasdaq.