(Wikimedia Commons)

Shares of Bio-Reference Laboratories are surging after news it's being acquired for $1.47 billion.

On Thursday morning, Opko Health said it would pay 2.75 shares for each Bio-Reference Labs share, which comes to about $52.58 per share.

Bio-Reference Labs surged more than 43% in premarket trading after being briefly halted and opened about 40% higher. Opko Health fell more than 5%.

Bio-Reference Labs closed at $32.96 a share on Thursday. It's up 23% over the past 12 months.

The statement said, "OPKO intends to leverage the national marketing, sales, and distribution resources of Bio-Reference Laboratories to enhance sales of its 4Kscore test, a blood test that provides a patient’s specific personalized risk score for aggressive prostate cancer as well as other OPKO diagnostic products under development."

The deal is expected to close in the second half of the year.

Here's a chart showing the spike in Bio-Reference Labs shares on Thursday morning:

(Google Finance)

NOW WATCH: Animated map shows what Europe would look like if all the Earth's ice melted

More From Business Insider

• Malcolm Gladwell just went nuts on a Wall Street billionaire's $400 million donation to Harvard
  

• This meme about a disabled Army vet losing to Caitlyn Jenner for an ESPN award is taking over the internet — and it's completely bogus
  

• The Federal Reserve poses a huge threat to the biotech merger 'feeding frenzy'