Ireland-based Jazz Pharmaceuticals Plc said it would purchase Italian biotech company Gentium S.p.A. for about $1 billion to get access to Defitelio, a drug used for the treatment of a rare liver condition.Jazz Pharma's shares, which closed at $114.72, were up 8 percent in extended trading.The $57 per-share deal is at a premium of 2.4 percent over Gentium's Thursday close of $55.65 on the Nasdaq. Gentium shares were up 3 percent in trading after the bell.In October, the European Commission granted marketing authorization for Defitelio, which is the first drug approved for hepatic veno-occlusive disease (VOD), a rare condition in which some veins in the liver are blocked as a result of cancer therapy given prior to stem cell transplants.
GENTIUM S.p.A is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and manufacture of its product candidate, defibrotide, an investigational drug based on a mixture of single-stranded and double-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) extracted from pig intestines. Shares of GENT fell by 2.28% or $-1.3/share to $55.65. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $6.96 and as high as $59.25. On average, 150862 shares of GENT exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 129397.
Shares of JAZZ traded higher by 0.86% or $0.98/share to $114.72. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $50.76 and as high as $121.15. On average, 752183 shares of JAZZ exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 398297.
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