US drug wholesaler AmerisourceBergen has agreed to buy Alliance Healthcare, a distributor owned by Walgreens Boots Alliance, for about $6.5 billion (â¬5.3 billion), pushing further into Europe.
The offer, comprised $6.275 billion in cash and two million AmerisourceBergen shares, comes three years after a potential deal for Walgreens to acquire the pharmaceutical distributor fell through.
The two companies already have a strategic partnership in place but, as part of the transaction, Walgreens and AmerisourceBergen have agreed to extend a US distribution agreement by three years to 2029. Alliance Healthcare will also remain a distribution partner for Boots, the UK drugstore group, for a decade.