Gilead Sciences to Buy Kite Pharma for $11.9 Billion: Is It Enough to Move the Needle?

Gilead Sciences to Buy Kite Pharma for $11.9 Billion: Is It Enough to Move the Needle?

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD), prompted by its falling sales of its hepatitis C drugs over the past year, has finally pulled the trigger on a much-anticipated buyout: On Monday, it offered to acquire Kite Pharma (NASDAQ: KITE) for $11.9 billion in an all-cash deal. Kite's shares were up by 28.87% in pre-market trading on heavy volume as a result. 

Kite is a leader in the field of next-generation cancer treatments known as chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies. The biotech's lead CAR-T candidate, axicabtagene ciloleucel, or Axi-Cel for short, is currently under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a potential treatment for aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The FDA is expected to hand down a final decision on Axi-Cel in November.

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Source: Fool.com