Gilead to buy Kite for $11.9 billion in cancer drug megadeal

BERLIN: Gilead Sciences Inc agreed to buy Kite Pharma Inc for about $11.9 billion, making one of its biggest deals ever to expand beyond its eroding hepatitis C drug franchise.

With Kite, Gilead will gain cancer therapies and experimental drugs in one of the most promising fields in oncology: treatments known as CAR-T that re-engineer the body’s own immune system to fight tumors.

The drugmaker will pay $180 a share in an all-cash deal, according to a statement on Monday.

That’s 29% above the Friday closing price for Santa Monica, California-based Kite.

The acquisition caps more than a year of search for the ideal candidate after valuations for biotechnology companies focused on breakthrough therapies soared in the past year and the best got bought by rivals. Gilead, seeking to fill a gap left by declining sales of hepatitis C medicines, said last year it was feeling “an urgency to look at external opportunities”