French drugmaker Sanofi is close to acquiring biotechnology company Bioverativ for $105 a share, valuing the maker of hemophilia drugs at about $11.4 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The deal could be announced as soon as Monday morning New York time, according to the person, who declined to be named because the agreement hadn't been finalized by late Sunday. The Wall Street Journal first reported the news Sunday evening.
The offer represents a premium of 63 percent to Bioverativ's Friday closing price and would be all cash.
Bioverativ is a spin-out of biotech giant Biogen, and drew $274.8 million in third-quarter revenue from its two products for hemophilia. That was up 27 percent from the prior year's quarter, though the franchise faces increasing competition from Roche, and, further down the line, from one-time gene therapy approaches being pursued by BioMarin, Spark Therapeutics and others.
Sanofi, based in Paris, had been at the table of two of the largest biotech deals in recent years, but had come up empty-handed: Johnson & Johnson's purchase of Actelion for $30 billion in January 2017, and Pfizer's acquisition of Medivation for $14 billion in August 2016.
Representatives from Sanofi and BioVerativ didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday night.