The shareholders of the Swiss biotech company Actelion approved the acquisition by Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). As a reminder, J&J offered to buy Actelion for $30 billion, and now the acquisition could be completed by the second quarter of the year. As part of the deal, the drug discovery and early clinical pipeline division of Actelion – to be called Idorsia, will spin-out and will be traded as an independent company on the Swiss stock exchange.

Actelion chairman Jean-Pierre Garnier commented that Idorsia has a very promising future ahead and the spin-off will likely increase this positive vision. Jean-Paul Clozel, Actelion co-founder, will join Jean-Pierre in Idorsia as the CEO of the company. We’ll have to wait for the spin-off details to understand if it’s indeed attractive to our portfolio.