Bellus soars as GSK plans to buy drug developer for $2 bln

BELLUS Health

18/04/2023 15:11

(Updates)
    ** U.S. shares of Bellus Health Inc  BLU.O  surge 99.5% to a
more than 12-year high at $14.5 
    ** Stock biggest pct gainer across U.S. stock exchanges
    ** GSK  GSK.L  plans to buy the Canada-based drug developer
in an all-cash deal for $2 billion as the British drugmaker
expands its bet on respiratory therapies
    ** GSK's offer of $14.75/share is more than double BLU's
closing price of $7.26/share on Nasdaq on Monday
    ** Through the deal, GSK gains access to BLU's experimental
drug, camlipixant, which is in late-stage development as a
treatment for refractory chronic cough
    ** BLU deal expands GSK's existing respiratory portfolio,
including Nucala and Trelegy, which together generated more than
3 bln pounds ($3.73 bln) last year
    ** Including session's gain, U.S.-listed shares of BLU up
~75% YTD 

 (Reporting by Khushi Mandowara and Pratik Jain in Bengaluru)
 ((Khushi.Mandowara@thomsonreuters.com;))