Paul D’Souza
Clarivate Analytics
London, United Kingdom

During the third quarter of 2017, Cortellis Deals Intelligence had 122 deals added as part of its ongoing coverage of life science mergers & acquisitions (M&A) compared to 145 in Q2 this year and 124 in Q3 the previous year.

DEAL ACTIVITY IN THE THIRD QUARTER FROM 2009 TO 2017

Deal activity in the third quarter of 2017 remained consistent with the same quarter over the previous three years, while total deal value was slightly lower than the previous year’s third quarter with Gilead’s $11.9 billion acquisition of Kite Pharma contributing to most of the figure (Figure 1).

KITE PHARMA AND IMMUNO-ONCOLOGY HEADS TO GILEAD FOR $11.9 BILLION

Gilead acquired Kite Pharma for $180 per share in cash or $11.9 billion in total to advance its position in the field of immuno-oncology. Gilead gains access to Kite’s chimeric antigen receptors expressed from engineered T-cells (CAR-Ts), including axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta), its most advanced CAR-T therapy which had been awaiting U.S. approval for lymphoma. It is projected to provide Gilead with a valuable re ...