Jazz Pharmaceuticals has closed its all-stock acquisition of privately held Azur Pharma Ltd., a deal that creates a specialty drug company incorporated in Ireland.
The company, now named Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc, has about 430 employees and is headquartered in Dublin. It also has U.S. offices in Philadelphia and Palo Alto, Calif., where Jazz Pharmaceuticals Inc. was based.
Jazz shareholders, who approved the deal last month, will own nearly 80 percent of the combined company.
Jazz expects the combined company to earn between $4 and $4.15 per share on $465 million to $490 million in revenue this year.
The new company will focus on four areas: narcolepsy, severe chronic pain, psychiatry and women's health products. Azur Pharma sells 10 drugs for the central nervous system and women's health. Jazz makes Xyrem for narcolepsy patients and Luvox CR to treat obsessive compulsive disorder.
Shares of Jazz Pharmaceuticals climbed 2.6 percent, or $1.21, to $47.85 in afternoon trading, outpacing a Nasdaq exchange increase of about 1 percent.