Gilead Buys Kite Pharma to Diversify Portfolio

Gilead Buys Kite Pharma to Diversify Portfolio

by | Aug 29, 2017 3:20 pm | Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals | 0 comments

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 »

Kite Pharma Soars with Two T-Cell Acquisitions

by | Jul 29, 2016 4:09 pm | Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals | 0 comments

Kite Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: KITE) has been busy lately, announcing two separate license deals in the last week of July. On July 25, it acquired the exclusive worldwide rights to technology that advances the development of off-the-shelf allogeneic T-cell therapies from renewable pluripotent stem cells, also known as the ATO system, in a deal with the University of California, Los Angeles. In connection with this agreement, Kite entered into a sponsored research agreement with UCLA to support ongoing preclinical research for the ATO system. Two days later, Kite entered into a license agreement with the National Institute of Health for the license to its fully human anti-CD19 chimeric antigen... Read More »