US pharma firm Baxalta accepts Shire's $32bn bid

Dublin-based pharmaceutical group Shire said Monday that it has agreed to buy US peer Baxalta for $32 billion in a deal aimed at forming a global biotech giant targeting rare diseases. The agreed cash-and-share offer, worth the equivalent of 29 billion euros, was an improvement on a previous hostile bid of $30 billion that Baxalta rejected in August. The purchase of the Deerfield, Illinois-based group will boost Shire’s position in the market for rare-disease treatments in the pharmaceutic