Gilead nears $20 billion deal to buy Immunomedics — WSJ

Gilead Sciences Inc is nearing a deal to buy biopharmaceutical company Immunomedics Inc for more than $20 billion in a deal that would further expand Gilead’s portfolio of cancer treatments, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

A deal for Immunomedics, whose cancer therapy Trodelvy is FDA-approved as a third-line treatment for an aggressive type of breast cancer called Metastatic Triple-Negative Breast Cancer, could be announced Monday if not sooner, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Discussions between Gilead and Immunomedics were initially centered around a partnership before shifting to a full-fledged takeover negotiation, the Journal added.

Gilead and Immunomedics did not respond immediately to emailed requests from Reuters for comment.

Shares of Immunomedics, which last month reported positive data from a late-stage confirmatory study for Trodelvy, have nearly doubled this year, giving the company a valuation of close to $10 billion.

An acquisition of Immunomedics would add to several deals Gilead inked this year with the aim of expanding its oncology portfolio.

It bought a 49.9 per cent stake in cancer drug developer Pionyr Immunotherapeutics in June for $275 million, just months after paying $4.9 billion for Forty Seven Inc, maker of an experimental treatment that targets blood cancer.

Gilead also produces the COVID-19 drug remdesivir, which it sells under the brand name Veklury in some countries.

A surplus of remdesivir – which costs $3,120 for a 6-vial intravenous course – marks a turnaround from earlier in the pandemic, when supplies of the drug had fallen short of demand in some regions.

Remdesivir was first authorized by the FDA in May for emergency use in COVID-19 patients hospitalized and on oxygen support after data showed it helped shorten hospital recovery time.

More than 25 million people have been infected with COVID-19 and 856,876 have died, according to a Reuters tally. No drug has yet been found to reduce mortality rates.

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