Gilead Sciences to Acquire Immunomedics for $21 Billion Dollar
Gilead Sciences, Inc. and Immunomedics announced in a joint statement on Sunday that Gilead will acquire Immunomedics, a biopharmaceutical company for $88.00 per share in cash, which represents a premium of about 108% over their last closing price on Sept 11 which was at $42.25.
Gilead Sciences, being led by the legal counsel of Davis Polk, will be paying Wachtell Lipton - advised drug development firm Immunomedics approximately $21 billion. Both the Board of Directors for Gilead and Immunomedics have given their approval for this acquisition and the deal is anticipated to close during the fourth quarter of 2020.
Daniel O'Day, Gilead Chief Executive Officer, said that this deal grants Gilead the access to Immunomedics' breast cancer treatment drug, Trodelvy.
Trodelvy was granted an accelerated FDA approval in April as a form of treatment for adult patients suffering from metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC) and who have received at least two prior therapies for metastatic disease. This is a transformational medicine for a form of cancer that is particularly challenging to treat, by gaining access to this promising drug, Foster City, California-based Gilead Sciences, can build a strong and diverse cancer portfolio and provide them with a Morris Plains, New Jersey-head quartered drug maker which can help them to continue to explore the potential for this drug to treat other forms of cancer.
At the beginning of the discussion between Gilead and Immunomedics, it was focused more on a partnership but it then shifted to a full-fledged takeover negotiation.
Immunomedics is scheduled to file for regulatory approval of Trodelvy in Europe in the first half of 2021. $15 billion in cash will be funded for this deal, and another $6 billion roughly to be in newly issued debt.
Among the several deals that Gilead inked this year, acquiring Immunomedics is the latest made. This deal came after Gilead's hepatitis C business has shown poor sales in recent years coupled with downward sales following the coronavirus pandemic, this lead to Gilead's sales falling 10% during the second quarter to $5.1 billion.
Last June, Gilead bought a 49.9% stake in cancer drug developer Pionyr Immunotherapeutics for $275 million. This was just months prior to paying $4.9 billion for Forty Seven Inc, the maker of an experimental treatment that specifically designed to target blood cancer.
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Gilead Sciences Inc. and Immunomedics
Immunomedics is a leading, innovative biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of immunotherapeutics for the treatment of cancer, autoimmune, and other serious diseases in order to improve the health and quality of life of patients.
Immunomedics' Trodelvy serves as the treatment for relapsed or refractory metastatic triple-negative breast cancer and is the first FDA approved antibody-drug conjugate.
Trodelvy is the first antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) approved specifically for the treatment of metastatic TNBC. Since TNBC is an aggressive form of cancer with poor prognosis and few effective forms of treatment, Trodelvy serves as a tool for clinicians to treating patients with this disease.
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Sep 13, 2020 11:30 PM EDT
