Roche to Buy InterMune for US$8.3 B to Gain Pirfenidone for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

Abstract

In its fifth M&A deal of 2014 so far, Roche has agreed to buy its former partner InterMune for approximately US$8.3 B in an all-cash deal, the company’s largest since its US$46.8 B purchase of 44% of Genentech in 2009. With the acquisition, Roche will gain InterMune’s idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis drug pirfenidone, which is approved in Europe and Canada as Esbriet® and which is awaiting a regulatory decision in the US. The deal will expand Roche’s small respiratory franchise, which include Pulmozyme® (dornase alpha) for cystic fibrosis and Xolair® (omalizumab) for allergic asthma.