Johnson & Johnson seals $30-billion Actelion deal

Actelion shares surged as much as 22 per cent in Zurich

Johnson & Johnson agreed to buy Actelion for $30 billion and spin off the Swiss drugmaker’s research and development operations, clinching its largest deal ever to become a leader in medicines treating a rare type of high blood pressure.

J&J, already the world’s biggest maker of health-care products, is fulfilling its goal of adding a new drug category with the transaction and dealing a blow to France’s Sanofi, which had also sought to acquire Actelion. The deal is expensive compared to recent industry takeovers such as Pfizer’s acquisition of Medivation and AbbVie’s purchase of Pharmacyclics, according to an analysis from Bloomberg