Covington & Burling represented AstraZeneca in its $1.26 billion acquisition of Ardea Biosciences. Under the agreement, AstraZeneca will pay $32 per share for all of the outstanding shares of Ardea.

AstraZeneca is a global, innovation-driven biopharmaceutical business with a primary focus on the discovery, development and commercialization of prescription medicines for gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, neuroscience, respiratory and inflammation, oncology and infectious disease. Ardea is a biotechnology company based in San Diego, California, focused on the development of small-molecule therapeutics for the treatment of serious diseases. 

The Covington team was led by Catherine Dargan, with assistance from Stephen Infante and Michael Riella. The team also included John Hurvitz, Emily Leonard, Ashley Nelson, Darien Capron, Brianna Sandoval, Christina Chung, Larry Bartenev and Caitlin Cottingham (life sciences/corporate), Robert Heller and Sarah Burnham (tax), Michael Francese and Katherine Mineka (benefits), Marialuisa Gallozzi and Scott Levitt (insurance), Andrea Reister and Marie Lavalleye (intellectual property), Michael Labson (regulatory), and Deborah Garza, James Dean and Jonathan Herczeg (antitrust).