Gilead Sciences buying Kite Pharma for $11.9 billion
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NEW YORK - Gilead Sciences is buying Israeli company Kite Pharma for $11.9 billion, giving the biotechnology company a broader portfolio of potential cell therapies for cancer.
Kite Pharma is engineering treatments for cancer that use a patient's own immune cells to fight the disease. It's most advanced drug candidate, axicabtagene ciloleucel, is under priority review by the Food and Drug Administration as a treatment for several types of lymphoma.
Gilead Sciences Inc. will pay Kite Pharma Inc. $180 per share, marking a 29 percent premium to the company's closing price on Friday. The deal has been approved by both companies' boards and is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
