Australia's CSL to buy Swiss drugmaker Vifor for US$11.7b

[BENGALURU] Australian biopharmaceutical giant CSL said it would buy Swiss drugmaker Vifor Pharma for US$11.7 billion, aiming to diversify beyond the blood plasma collection business after taking a hit from Covid-19 curbs.

CSL, one of Australia's largest companies, offered Vifor US$179.25 a share, it said on Tuesday (Dec 14).

The deal would be CSL's biggest so far and give it access to Vifor's treatments for iron deficiency, kidney and cardio-renal diseases, as well as its production sites in Switzerland and Portugal.

Restrictions imposed during the pandemic had hindered blood collections, hitting the CSL business unit which generates nearly nine-tenths of the company's profit.

Shares of the Swiss company, which used to be known as Galenica, have soared by more than a third since early December, when news first broke that there was a potential deal in the offing.

REUTERS