![]() ![]() ![]() However, it's not transformative from a financial standpoint. Buying Kite meets that qualification in terms of positioning the biotech in oncology. ![]() However, the company clearly needs a bigger boost to its lineup to offset its hep C woes.ĬEO John Milligan has stated that Gilead wanted a "transformative" deal. I don't question Gilead's estimates - they're probably solid. and Europe for treating refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Gilead stated that the Kite acquisition is "expected to be neutral to earnings by year three and accretive thereafter." These projections assume that axi-cel wins approval in both the U.S. As great as buying Kite Pharma should be over the long run, buying Kite isn't enough to turn things around for Gilead by itself. The primary reason that Gilead Sciences needed an acquisition was to compensate for continued sales declines for its hepatitis C franchise. But buying Kite Pharma should only be the beginning of acquisitions activity for Gilead. Adding Kite's pipeline, particularly lead candidate axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel), makes Gilead an instant leader in cell therapy for treating cancer. Kite seems to have shaken off this setback for the time being, with some impressive long-term trial results showing in a handful of patients with aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma, with some living more than four years with complete remission.There are several reasons to like the acquisition. The same safety problem caused rival biotech Juno to axe development of its lead CAR-T product after a string of deaths in early-stage trials, switching R&D to a drug further down the pipeline. Novartis has already got its rival CAR-T therapy, Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) on the US market ahead of Kite – but FDA approval bodes well for Gilead as it waits for a decision on “axi-cel” due before the end of November.Įvaluate Pharma predicts that sales of Kite’s drug could peak at around $7.9 billion, compared with $4.7 billion for Novartis’ CAR-T.īut there are safety concerns over Kite’s drug – it emerged in May that a patient treated with it died from cerebral oedema. This will be no mean feat considering that CAR-T treatments involve harvesting a patient’s T-cells and genetically modifying them so that they attack cancer. Gilead’s immediate plans for Kite is to increase production of the T-cell technology to an “industrial scale” and increasing manufacturing capability. As for Belldegrun, he has given no clues about his plans – however, he admitted to the Israel-based website Globes that it will be difficult to exceed his achievements at Kite. ![]() R&D chief David Chang will also get a package worth $98 million. With the deal, Gilead gets Kite’s chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy, axicabtagene ciloluecel, which is under review in the US and Europe as a treatment for an aggressive blood cancer.Īs a result of the sale, Belldegrun is expected to net a bonus of more than $694 million thanks to shares owned and a ‘golden parachute’ payment, while chief operating officer Cynthia Buttita will get around $160 million in shares and a ‘golden parachute’. The California-based pharma said a subsidiary acquired Kite for $180 per share in a deal that has also net hundreds of millions of dollars for the cancer firm’s CEO, Arie Belldegrun and senior execs. Gilead has completed its $11.9 billion landmark acquisition of Kite Pharma, as the pharma switches focus from hepatitis C to cancer and revolutionary CAR-T therapies. ![]()
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