Roche buying InterMune for $8.3B

Roche (SIX:ROG; OTCQX:RHHBY) will acquire InterMune Inc. (NASDAQ:ITMN) for $74 per share, or about $8.3 billion in cash. The offer is a 63% premium to InterMune's $45.49 closing price on Aug. 12, before rumors circulated that multiple bidders were interested in the company, and a 38% premium to InterMune's close of $53.80 on Friday, before the deal was announced.

The driver of the deal is InterMune's Esbriet pirfenidone, which the company markets in Canada and Europe to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. FDA is reviewing an NDA that has a Nov. 23 PDUFA date. FDA granted breakthrough therapy designation in July for the small molecule inhibitor of proinflammatory cytokines and pro-fibrotic cytokines that targets p38 MAPK. ...