Sanofi Buys Belgian Co. for $4.8b

French drugmaker Sanofi has agreed to buy Belgian biotech company Ablynx for €3.9 billion ($4.8 billion), beating Novo Nordisk and marking its second big deal this month after buying Bioverativ, Reuters reported. The deal is a further sign of accelerating merger and acquisition activity in the global biotech sector and comes after Ablynx rejected a €2.6 billion offer from Denmark’s Novo Nordisk. Sanofi said on Monday it would pay €45 per share in cash for Ablynx, a premium of 21% over its closing price on Friday—and more than double the price before Novo went public with its initial bid. Novo Nordisk conceded defeat, saying it did not intend to make a revised offer for Ablynx, which is developing a prized experimental drug for a rare blood disorder. This month has seen a spike in multibillion-dollar deals in biotech, with US-based Celgene paying $9 billion for cancer specialist Juno Therapeutics, and several experts predicting a bumper year for M&A.