Sanofi SA said it won’t make an offer for Horizon Therapeutics Plc, ending discussions for what would have been one of its largest-ever acquisitions.
Sanofi won’t proceed with an offer for Horizon because the "transaction price expectations do not meet our value creation criteria,” according to a statement on Sunday.
The withdrawal of Sanofi from discussions with Horizon comes after Johnson & Johnson said earlier this month it also won’t make an offer for the company. Amgen Inc remains the only party that Horizon has said it’s in talks with.
Horizon shares have fallen about 10% in New York this year, giving it a market value of $22 billion. Traded on the Nasdaq exchange and headquartered in Dublin, the company gets almost half of its $3.6 billion in annual sales from Tepezza, a treatment for a painful autoimmune condition called thyroid eye disease.
Other top drugs include Krystexxa for chronic gout and Ravicti, a treatment for inborn urea disorders.
Emerging from the exhausting focus on Covid-19, big drugmakers are resuming their search for innovative therapies, especially for those that treat rare diseases and cancer. Still, growing market volatility and a looming economic recession could dampen the appetite for dealmaking.
Earlier this year, Sanofi formed a deal to develop 15 experimental oncology and immunology drugs with Exscientia Plc with possible total payouts of as much as $5.2 billion, allying with a company that uses artificial intelligence to make new medicines.
