Japan's Astellas to buy Audentes for $3 billion in high-priced gene therapy bet
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TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Astellas Pharma Inc is buying U.S. drugmaker Audentes Therapeutics Inc for about $3 billion (2.3 billion pounds) in cash, in a high-priced push to make genetic medicines a key area of growth. Gene therapies are one of the hottest areas of drug research and Astellas, Japan's second-largest drugmaker by sales, is offering $60 per share for San Francisco-based Audentes, a 110% premium to its closing price on Monday.Citi analyst Hidemaru Yamaguchi said that while the deal..