Glaxo buys Genmab stake for €1.59bn

THE world’s second-largest drugmaker, GlaxoSmithKline, agreed to pay as much as $2.1 billion (€1.59bn) for a 10.1% stake in Danish biotechnology company Genmab and rights to one of its cancer and arthritis treatments.

Shares of Genmab rose to their highest price in six years.

Glaxo will pay a fee of €78m now and buy shares valued at about €2.03 billion kroner, the companies said yesterday.