Gilead Sciences has agreed to acquire Immunomedics, a Morris Plains, New Jersey-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), for $21 billion.

Immunomedics’ lead product is Trodelvy (sacituzumab govitecan-hziy), an ADC that was granted accelerated approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier this year (April 2020) for treating adult patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer who received at least two prior therapies for metastatic disease. Immunomedics says it plans to submit a supplemental biologics license application (BLA) to support full approval of Trodelvy in the US in the fourth quarter of 2020. Immunomedics is also on track to file for regulatory approval in Europe in the first half of 2021.

Under the agreement, a wholly owned subsidiary of Gilead will commence a tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Immunomedics’ common stock at $88.00 per share. Following successful completion of the tender offer, Gilead will acquire all remaining shares not tendered in the offer through a second-step merger at the same price as the tender offer. The tender offer is not subject to a financing condition and will be funded through approximately $15 billion in cash on hand and approximately $6 billion in newly issued debt.

The transaction was unanimously approved by both the Gilead and Immunomedics Boards of Directors and is anticipated to close during the fourth quarter of 2020.

Source: Gilead Sciences