Millennium sold for $8.8b to Japanese drug firm
Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc., one of the Bay State's best known biotech companies, is being sold.
Japanese drug marker Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. said early this morning it would buy the Cambridge biotech for $8.8 billion in cash, more than 50 percent more than the company's closing stock value Wednesday.
Millennium makes a cancer drug, called Velcade, that is expected to become a multibillion-dollar drug in coming years, and has several more experimental drugs in its pipeline. Takeda is the world's 17th-largest drug maker.
In early trading Millennium shares soared more than 49 percent to $24.43, up $8.08. Stocks in some other biotech companies, including Biogen Idec Inc. in Cambridge and Genzyme Corp., rose more modestly.
Millennium was founded in 1993 by some of the brightest stars in the Boston life sciences world, including Eric Lander, now director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
Takeda said it plans to operate Millennium as an independent subsidiary with the same management team and workforce.
(By Todd Wallack, Globe staff)
For previous Globe coverage of Millennium, click here.
