Novartis buys Takeda dry eye drug Xiidrafor for $3.4 billion

U.S: Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG said on Wednesday it agreed to acquire Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd's dry eye drug Xiidrafor an upfront payment of $3.4 billion to expand its portfolio of eye care medicines.

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The deal includes potential milestone payments of up to $1.9 billion and is expected to close in the second half of 2019.

The company is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies by both market capitalization and sales. In 1996, Ciba-Geigy merged with Sandoz; the pharmaceutical and agrochemical divisions of both companies formed Novartis as an independent entity.

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