Amgen to buy Horizon Therapeutics in $26.4B deal

By TOM MURPHY
AP Health Writer

Amgen is spending more than $26 billion to dive deeper into rare disease treatments with a deal for drugmaker Horizon Therapeutics. The biotech drug developer said Monday that it will pay $116.50 in cash for each share of Horizon, which makes a treatment for thyroid eye disease that generated more than $1 billion in its first full year on the market. Shares of Horizon jumped in early trading Monday. U.S.-traded shares of the Irish company had already soared about 30% since it confirmed late last month that it had begun “highly preliminary discussions” about an acquisition.