AstraZeneca acquires Alexion (2020)
AstraZeneca paid $39 billion for Alexion, a Boston-based rare disease specialist whose flagship drug Soliris treated paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria and other ultra-rare conditions. The deal was AstraZeneca's largest ever and pulled the British-Swedish drugmaker into a category dominated until then by smaller, focused biotechs.
Alexion became AstraZeneca's rare disease division and immediately added high-margin revenue. Investors who had questioned the price came around as Soliris and its successor Ultomiris kept growing.
The deal helped legitimize rare-disease franchises as a strategic acquisition category for big pharma, accelerating subsequent transactions and bidding multiples for orphan-drug companies.
Same template as Chiesi-KalVista: a larger pharma company buys a smaller specialist with an approved rare-disease drug to gain instant franchise revenue and global launch capacity. The pricing math—premium for a launched product with limited competition—mirrors what Chiesi paid.