- Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) is reportedly planning to buy Immunomedics, Inc. (NASDAQ: IMMU) for over $20 billion, according to sources with The Wall Street Journal
Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) is reportedly planning to buy Immunomedics, Inc. (NASDAQ: IMMU) for over $20 billion, according to sources with The Wall Street Journal. Immunomedics is a biotechnology company that is known for its breast cancer treatment drug Trodelvy. Prior to the reported acquisition talks, Gilead and Immunomedics have been partners. The terms of the deal are expected to be announced early this coming week.
Immunomedics’ stock price closed at $42.25 on Friday, September 11, 2020. At this price, the company’s market value was $9.77 billion so this acquisition price would be more than double. The stock price of Immunomedics has nearly doubled since the beginning of the year. Gilead closed at $65.58 on September 11, 2020, at a market value of $82.21 billion.
This year, Gilead has been aggressively making deals. In June the company bought a 49.9% stake in Pionyr Immunotherapeutics for $275 million. And in March 2020, Gilead announced a deal to buy Forty Seven for $4.9 billion.
Last month, Immunomedics reported that Trodelvy hit $20.1 million during its first two months on the market. And over 80% of oncologists who have been treating metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC) plan to prescribe Trodelvy in the third-line setting.
“We continue to expect robust uptake of Trodelvy in thirdline mTNBC; we are encouraged by the initial sales result” said HC Wainwright analyst Robert Burns in August via SmarterAnalyst. Burns issued a buy rating on Immunomedics with a $56 price target.
For the initial launch, Immunomedics focused on the top 150 breast cancer accounts in the U.S. And during the first two months of Trodelvy being available, the company was able to make deals with over 80% of those accounts.
Disclosure: I own a small number of Gilead shares.
