AbbVie Inc. acquired Shire Plc for $54.7 billion. According to a Reuters article, the deal will cut AbbVie's U.S. tax bill and its reliance on arthritis drug Humira, the world's top selling medicine which loses U.S. patent protection in 2016. AbbVie is said to generate nearly 60 percent of its revenue from Humira.
The article reported that AbbVie plans to create a company listed in New York, incorporated in Jersey, the Channel Islands, and tax-domiciled in Britain, which will pay an effective tax of about 13 percent by 2016, sharply lower than its current rate of about 22 percent, making the deal one of the biggest driven by the tactic known as tax inversion. Read the full story