Shire and ViroPharma announced that the companies have entered into a merger agreement in which Shire will acquire all outstanding shares of ViroPharma for $50 per share in cash, for a total consideration of approximately $4.2 billion.

Lazard and Morgan Stanley are acting as joint financial advisors to Shire. Goldman, Sachs & Co. is acting as financial advisor to ViroPharma. Davis Polk & Wardwell is acting as legal advisor to Shire; and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom is acting as legal advisor to ViroPharma.

Shire Chief Executive Officer Flemming Ornskov, MD, said, “The acquisition of ViroPharma will immediately benefit Shire and is entirely consistent with our clear strategic objective of strengthening our rare disease portfolio. It brings us a new growth driving product which augments our already strong growth prospects.”

Vincent J. Milano, ViroPharma’s CEO, stated, “We are pleased to announce our merger with Shire, which like ViroPharma, is focused on developing products for patients suffering from rare diseases. After thoroughly evaluating our strategic options we determined that this transaction is in the best interests of ViroPharma, our shareholders and our patients.”

ViroPharma is a rare disease biopharmaceutical company, whose commercial product CINRYZE® (C1 esterase inhibitor [human]), offers the prophylactic treatment of Hereditary Angioedema (HAE). The company also offers a number of other marketed products and a pipeline of product candidates in the rare disease space.

Shire, which develops and markets innovative specialty medicines to meet unmet patient needs, provides treatments in neuroscience, rare diseases, gastrointestinal, internal medicine and regenerative medicine.