Gilead agrees to buy Kite Pharma, leaping into CAR-T cancer therapy

Investors wanted Gilead Sciences to shake things up with a big, transformative acquisition and that’s what the company did Monday, agreeing to buy Kite Pharma and its CAR-T cancer-killing technology for $11.9 billion.

Gilead is paying $180 per share, all in cash, for Kite, or a 29 percent premium over its closing stock price Friday.

With the Kite deal, Gilead becomes a player in a new type of blockbuster cancer treatment in which a patient’s own immune cells are re-engineered to recognize and kill cancer cells — a technology known as CAR-T. Kite’s lead therapy, known as axi-cel, is expected to secure approvals in the U.S. and Europe soon to treat a form of blood cancer in adults. A rival CAR-T for children with blood cancer from Novartis is also expected to be approved soon.

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