Amgen plans to scoop up Horizon Therapeutics for $27.8 billion, which would be the most expensive healthcare acquisition announced in 2022.
The all-cash payment is expected to finalize in the first half of 2023, according to a Dec. 12 Amgen news release. The deal, valued at $28.3 billion, will take place through Amgen's company Acquirer Sub.
The news comes after weeks of drugmakers vying for Horizon, a biotech company that specializes in rare disease treatments. Sanofi was in the running to acquire the Dublin-based company while others, including Johnson & Johnson, said they would not enter the bidding process.
Amgen CEO Robert Bradway said the acquisition will boost the company's portfolio of innovative medicines with the addition of Horizon's thyroid eye disease treatment Tepezza, chronic gout drug Krystexxa and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder treatment Uplizna. Together, the three products made Horizon $2 billion in the first nine months of 2022.