Roche (SIX:RO,ROG) has announced that it has completed the repurchase of 53.3 million shares held by Novartis (NYSE:NVS) for a total consideration of $20.7 billion.

In early November, the companies had announced that they had agreed to a bilateral transaction related to the sale of the shares.

Roche intends on canceling the repurchased shares after the transaction is complete.

“With this transaction, we regain full strategic flexibility without compromising our operational scope of action,” said Christoph Franz, Roche chairman of the board of directors.

Roche had previously stated that the transaction would not affect its communicated outlook for 2021.

In related news, Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan said the company plans on developing an oral therapy that would target an array of coronaviruses.