By Colin Kellaher


Shares of ChemoCentryx Inc. took flight in premarket trading Thursday after the biotechology company agreed to be acquired by larger peer Amgen Inc. for $3.7 billion in cash.

Amgen said it will pay $52 a share of ChemoCentryx, more than double Wednesday's closing price of $24.11 for the San Carlos, Calif., company.

The deal, slated to closed by the end of the year, bolsters Amgen's pipeline of cancer and immune drugs with the addition of ChemoCentryx's Tavneos, which last year won U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for a rare immune-system disease.

In premarket trading Thursday, ChemoCentryx shares were changing hands at $50.45, up about 109%.


Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

08-04-22 0857ET