Japanese drugmaker Takeda shares tumble as company considers bid for Shire

Takeda Pharmaceutical shares sank to their lowest level in almost a year on Thursday after Japan`s largest drugmaker said it was considering a bid for London-listed Shire that could top $40 billion.

Shares in Takeda fell more than 6 percent at one point in early morning trade, the lowest since last April, sharply underperforming the broader Tokyo market <.topx>, which was around 1 percent.

Takeda said on Wednesday it was at a "preliminary and exploratory stage" of considering a bid for the rare disease specialist, adding that it had not approached Shire`s board. Shire said it noted Takeda`s statement, and confirmed it had not received an approach.

Takeda`s potential bid for Shire, most of whose employees are based in North America, immediately stoked expectations for another takeover battle in the deal-hungry pharma industry.

Shire`s shares ended 15.7 percent higher, valuing the group at about 32 billion pounds ($45 billion).

Shire sells treatments for rare diseases and attention deficit disorder. Takeda said buying it could create a global biopharmaceutical leader, boosting its position in the United States and in the fields of oncology, gastrointestinal diseases and neuroscience.

The drugs industry has seen a surge in dealmaking as large players look for promising assets to improve their product pipelines.

In recent months, France`s Sanofi agreed to buy U.S haemophilia specialist Bioverativ for $11.6 billion and Belgium`s Ablynx for 3.9 billion euro ($4.8 billion). Before that, U.S.-based Celgene bought cancer specialist Juno Therapeutics .

(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)