French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis has completed its exchange offer for Genzyme Corp. stock, leaving it with control of the Cambridge-based biotech company.
Genzyme shareholders tendered more than 224 million shares, or 84.6 percent of the company’s outstanding shares, at the offer price of $74 cash.
The company is now offering remaining shareholders the chance to tender their shares, an offer which expires Thursday at 6 p.m. After that, it plans to enact a short-form merger, making Genzyme a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sanofi-Aventis.
With the merger, Genzyme, which has much of its operations in the MetroWest area, will become Sanofi-Aventis’ global center for work on rare diseases.
