Pharma BD Deal Intelligence
The $592M stock deal that seeded a $10B+/year cystic fibrosis empire — arguably the best-aged acquisition in modern pharma M&A.
Full analysis, sources & comparables →Vertex purchased Aurora at $24.34/share, a 44% premium to Aurora's $16.85 close, via a 0.62 Vertex/Aurora stock exchange ratio. SG Cowen analyst Bill Tanner:…
Vertex Pharmaceuticals to acquire Aurora Biosciences in a $592 million stock-for-stock deal, combining Aurora's screening platform with Vertex's drug discovery…
Retrospective: the Aurora acquisition and CFF venture-philanthropy partnership produced ivacaftor (Kalydeco, 2012) and ultimately Trikafta (2019), with one…
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Stock-for-stock at 0.62 Vertex/Aurora; Aurora $24.34/share (44% premium). Announced 2001-04-30. Brought ion-channel assay platform; eventual CFTR/Kalydeco-Trikafta lineage.
The $592M stock deal that seeded a $10B+/year cystic fibrosis empire — arguably the best-aged acquisition in modern pharma M&A.
Assessment window: 15yr post-close.
| Deal | Year | Value | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated / Aurora Biosciences Corporation (this deal) | 2001 | $592M | 95 |
| Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated / Semma Therapeutics Inc. | 2019 | $950M | 86 |
| Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated / Concert Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 2017 | $250M | 85 |
| Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated / CRISPR Therapeutics AG | 2015 | $2.6B | 85 |
| Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated / Alpine Immune Sciences | 2024 | $4.9B | 78 |
| Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated / Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, Inc. | 2026 | $10.0B | 68 |
| Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated / ViaCyte Inc. | 2022 | $320M | 60 |
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