Irish-based Shire buys rival for €5.3bn

Pharmaceutical giant Shire, which is headquartered in Ireland for tax purposes, has agreed to buy US rare disease specialist Dyax Corp for about $5.9bn (€5.35bn), and potentially up to $6.5bn, while still pursuing a five- times larger unsolicited bid for biopharma firm Baxalta Inc.

The Dyax deal, the latest in a series of purchases by the acquisitive Dublin-headquartered company, will give it access to the drug developer’s late-stage experimental treatment for a dangerous inflammatory disease that can block breathing.

It comes amid a record wave of deal-making in the broader healthcare sector so far this year, which amounted to $477bn as of last week.