Drug giant AstraZeneca has agreed to buy US firm ZS Pharma in a $2.7 billion (£1.8bn) cash deal.
It will give UK-based AstraZeneca access to a drug that could potentially treat the life-threatening condition hyperkalaemia.
The drug, ZS-9, is currently under regulatory review by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Shareholders in ZS Pharma will receive $90 (£59) per share, which represents a 42 per cent premium compared to Thursday's close price.
AstraZeneca boss Pascal Soriot said: "Hyperkalaemia can be a life-threatening condition for patients with chronic kidney disease and chronic heart failure, however the risk is underappreciated and prevalence is increasing.
"This acquisition complements our strategic focus on cardiovascular and metabolic disease by adding a potential best-in-class treatment to our portfolio of innovative medicines.
"We look forward to welcoming the ZS Pharma team to AstraZeneca.
"Under the terms of the agreement, AstraZeneca will acquire all of the outstanding capital stock of ZS Pharma for 90 dollars per share in an all-cash transaction, or approximately 2.7 billion dollars in aggregate transaction value."
AstraZeneca said the deal would not affect its financial guidance for 2015. On Thursday, the drug giant raised its full-year revenue guidance after stronger-than-expected quarterly sales driven by its key heart treatment drug Brilinta.
AstraZeneca fought off a £69bn takeover bid from US rival Pfizer last year.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here