Actelion agrees to takeover by Johnson and Johnson

Actelion has announced that the company is to be acquired by Johnson and Johnson in a deal worth around $30 billion (23.93 billion pounds).

The firm's leading franchise of products for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension has been deemed complementary to the existing portfolio of Johnson and Johnson's Janssen division.

Immediately prior to the completion of the acquisition, Actelion will spin out its drug discovery operations and early-stage clinical development assets into a newly created Swiss biopharmaceutical company.

Johnson and Johnson will have a commercial stake in and several option agreements with the new research company, which will be led by Actelion's current scientific team, headed by Dr Jean-Paul Clozel as chief executive officer and Jean Pierre Garnier as chairman.

Dr Clozel, a founding member of Actelion, said: "It is enormously exciting to continue to develop new and differentiated products, in multiple therapeutic areas, to improve the lives of patients."

It is expected that this transaction will be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2017.

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