Here are four things to know about the deal.
1. Gilead will pay $180 per share for Kite Pharma in an all-cash deal.
2. Kite Pharma is developing a chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, which spurs a patient’s immune cells to identify and attack cancer cells.
3. Gilead hopes to break into the CAR-T cancer drug market to make up for waning sales of its hepatitis C drugs.
“It really became clear that [the CAR-T drug] was going to work, and it was going to work in more than one kind of tumor … And then, importantly, that the manufacturing on an industrial scale could work,” Gilead CEO John Milligan said during an investor’s call, according to Reuters. “Now is the right time to get involved in this kind of therapy.”
4. Gilead expects the deal to close in the fourth quarter of this year.
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