Gilead Buys Kite Pharma to Diversify Portfolio

Gilead Buys Kite Pharma to Diversify Portfolio

Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) finally found a target worth pursuing. The pharmaceutical company, perhaps best known for its high-priced hepatitis-C drugs, Harvoni and Solvadi, placed its bets on Kite Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: KITE), hoping to cash in on the biotech’s promising technology for fighting cancer. Gilead announced the acquisition of Kite Pharma for $180.00 per share, valuing the company at approximately $11.9 billion. The price represents a 29% premium to Kite’s closing price on August 25, 2017. Kite Pharma is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that develops and commercializes novel cancer immunotherapy products. It is developing a pipeline of engineered... Read More »

Hanmi Pharmaceutical Deals with Sanofi, Janssen

Korean pharmaceutical company Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. popped up on the healthcare M&A radar last week with two collaboration announcements. First was an agreement with French drug maker Sanofi (NYSE: SNY) to grant the worldwide license to a yet-to-be developed portfolio of experimental, long-acting diabetes treatments. Sanofi paid an upfront fee of €400 million ($434,820,000) and is eligible for up to €3.5 billion in development, registration and sales milestone, as well as double digit royalties on net sales. The second deal, with Janssen Pharmacticals, Inc. (NYSE: JNJ), was for the rights to oxyntomodulin-based therapies, including Hanmi’s NM12525A. Janssen paid $105... Read More »

Janssen Scoops Up XO1

No, XO1 is not a drug candidate, it’s the name of an asset-centric virtual biopharmaceutical company, XO1 Limited, a UK-based portfolio company of Index Ventures. Janssen Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: JNJ) paid an undisclosed price for the virtual company, which was founded solely to develop the anti-thrombin antibody ichorcumab, which basically acts as an anticoagulant but doesn’t cause bleeding, like previous blood thinners. XO1 and Index Ventures licensed the technology from Cambridge University Hospitals, where it was developed. Read More »