Under the terms of the all-cash transaction, Roche will pay $74 (£44.65) a share for InterMune, a 38pc premium on the California-based firm’s closing price on Friday.
The acquisition of the biotechnology company “will allow Roche to broaden and strengthen its respiratory portfolio globally,” the Swiss company said. It added that the transaction is expected to boost earnings from 2016.
Roche said it plans “a smooth transition of InterMune employees and operations into the Roche organisation”. The American company hopes to launch its Pirfenidone drug in the US later this year. Analysts predict that the drug, which targets idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, could generate $1bn in global sales by 2019.
Roche, the world’s largest manufacturer of cancer drugs, has struggled to expand outside of oncology, dragging on development of diabetes and heart disease drugs.
The purchase of InterMune is Roche’s largest since 2009, when it acquired the 44pc of biotechnology firm Genentech that it did not already own for $46.8bn.
The deal is the culmination of a bidding war for InterMune, with Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline and Actelion all interested as Pirfenidone worked its way closer to the US market. The drug, also known as Esbriet, is already sold in Europe and would be the first medicine available in the US for the disease that kills 40,000 Americans annually.
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