Ben Hirschler For Christophe Weber, the boss of Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical, securing a $62bn (€52bn) deal last week to buy drugmaker Shire at the fifth time of asking was the easy bit.

Novartis, the Swiss drugmaker which employs 1,600 people in Ireland, has agreed to acquire AveXis for $8.7bn (€7.1bn) to gain a promising drug to treat a rare disease that afflicts infants, hastening a shift towards gene therapy and precision medicines.