Pasti schreef op 14 juli 2019 18:24:
www.wsj.com/articles/gilead-to- ... 1563120462
Gilead Sciences Inc. GILD 0.11% will pay $5.1 billion to boost its stake in Galapagos GLPG 2.72% NV and gain rights outside Europe to the Belgian biotechnology company’s treatments in development, in a broad research collaboration aimed at increasing growth at the drugmakers.
Under the terms of the deal, to be announced Sunday, Gilead will make a $3.95 billion payment to Galapagos. It also will invest $1.1 billion, or €140.59 ($158.49) a share, to increase its stake in the drugmaker to 22% from 12.3%. That represents a 20% premium to the 30-day weighted average share price of Galapagos, which trades in Amsterdam and on Nasdaq and has a market value of around $7.9 billion.
Assuming Galapagos shareholders sign off, Gilead could eventually boost its ownership stake to as much as 29.9%, officials of the companies said in interviews over the weekend. Gilead will get two seats on Galapagos’s board of directors as part of the deal.
Gilead, which has been looking for new products to regain its once-heady sales growth, is securing access for a decade to one of the industry’s most promising but also risky pipelines. Galapagos has six compounds in human testing, including potential drugs for conditions such as knee osteoarthritis and pulmonary fibrosis that would sell in multibillion-dollar markets.
Galapagos, meanwhile, gets a large infusion of cash to advance its drug-research efforts. The deal also could help Galapagos remain independent since Gilead will agree
not to make a bid for more than 29.9% of the company over the course of the agreement, and other potential suitors would likely be turned off by Gilead’s deep involvement with the company.
The companies know each other well: For more than three years, they have partnered on development of a drug for rheumatoid arthritis. They expect to seek approval to sell that drug, filgotinib, by the end of the year. As part of the broader collaboration they undertaking, Galapagos will get expanded European commercial rights to the drug, which analysts say could be a big seller.