Two drug companies are exploding after a pair of biotech mega-deals

Markets Insider

• French drugmaker Sanofi is acquiring biotech company Bioverativ in a $11.6 billion deal.
• Celgene is acquiring Juno Therapeutics, a company developing personalized cancer treatments, in a deal worth $9 billion.
• Both stocks are up big in pre-market trading Monday.

Shares of drugmaker Bioverativ and cancer treatments company Juno Therapeutics are both exploding, up 62% and 27% respectively, after the companies were both purchased in separate cash transactions.

Sanofi is purchasing Bioverativ, which specializes in hemophilia, in its biggest deal in seven years. The French company says the acquisition will bolster its rare diseases treatments, Reuters reports. Bioverativ's stock will be bought for $105 per share in cash - a 64% premium to Friday's closing price.

Celgene will pay $87 cash per share of Juno Therapeutics, a 27% premium to Friday's close. Juno is known for its experimental, highly personalized treatments called CAR T-cell therapy (CAR is short for chimeric antigen receptor).

The two huge deals comes at a time of renewed interest by large drugmakers in smaller biotech firm, and amid predictions by some experts that 2018 will see a substantial pick-up in mergers and acquisitions.