Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc Shares Crashes

Boston based  Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. shares shed 0.93% to $184.54 Tuesday. This proved to be an all-around poor trading session for the stock market, with the S&P 500 Index SPX falling 0.20% to 4,343.54 and Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA falling 0.60% to 34,577.37.

Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. closed $1.98 short of its 52-week high ($186.52), which the company achieved on July 2nd. The stock demonstrated a mixed performance when compared to some of its competitors Tuesday, as Gilead Sciences Inc. GILD fell 1.28% to $68.41, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. VRTX fell 0.24% to $200.05, and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. REGN fell 0.24% to $582.25.

Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc trading volume (3.1 M) eclipsed its 50-day average volume of 1.9 M.The stock’s fall snapped a two-day winning streak. AstraZeneca PLC announced it has received EU approval for the US$39bn (£27.5bn) acquisition of Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., expected to complete in the third quarter.The pharma giant has already received approval in the US, Canada, Brazil, Russia and Japan but is still waiting for the green light from the UK. Last month, the UK Competition and Markets Authority started an investigation into the acquisition to decide whether it would constitute a merger, which in turn could potentially lessen competition.

The megadeal, announced in December, would allow the Anglo-Swedish group to boost its growing presence in immunology and rare diseases.The deal will see Alexion shareholders paid US$175 for each share, made up of US$60 in cash and 2.1243 American depositary shares (ADSs), which each represent one-half of one ordinary AstraZeneca share.