Pfizer Inc. has agreed to buy Global Blood Therapeutics Inc. for $5.4 billion, a deal that would give the big drugmaker a foothold in the treatment of sickle-cell disease.
Pfizer said on Monday it would pay $68.50 a share in cash for Global Blood Therapeutics, which has one of the few approved treatments for sickle-cell disease. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the companies were in advanced talks.
The acquisition continues a series of deals for Pfizer, which is flush with cash from sales of its Covid 19 vaccine and drug. By the year 2030, it wants to add $25 billion in revenue from business-development moves like mergers and acquisitions.
Add Global Blood Therapeutics would bolster Pfizer's rare-diseases business and help it achieve its long-time goal of selling drugs to treat sickle cell, an inherited blood disorder that affects around 100,000 people in the U.S. and 20 million worldwide, including many who are Black.
Red blood cells look like crescents or sickles in patients with the disease, rather than a normal disc shape. Due to their shape, the cells don't move easily and can block blood flow, damage organs and lead to strokes.
Researchers have been trying to develop effective treatments, including gene therapies, but the disease has proven hard to treat. A handful of drugs are approved, but most focus on the complications of sickle-cell disease rather than its underlying cause. A bone-marrow transplant is the only cure.
New York-based Pfizer tried to develop its own sickle-cell drug, but it didn't work.
In the US, Global Blood Therapeutics won approval for a sickle-cell drug called Oxbryta in the year 2019. It has two other sickle-cell drugs in development.
The deep market knowledge and the scientific and clinical capabilities we have built over three decades in rare hematology will enable us to speed up innovation for the sickle-cell disease community, and bring these treatments to patients as soon as possible, said Albert Bourla, Pfizer Chief Executive.
Oxbryta made $195 million in net sales last year for Global Blood Therapeutics, which is based in South San Francisco, Calif.
If each of the three Global Blood Therapeutics drugs is approved, the franchise has a multibillion-dollar sales potential, especially if Pfizer can fold them into its global commercial network and market them worldwide, according to analysts.
The Global Blood Therapeutics Chief Executive Ted Love said, "Pfizer will broaden and amplify our impact for patients.
The drugs could eventually face competition from gene therapies. Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG sells Adakveo, a treatment for pain crises in sickle-cell patients 16 years of age and older.
Pfizer's purchase, along with a recent agreement by Amgen Inc. to buy ChemoCentryx Inc., could help turn Wall Street sentiment on biotech shares. Market turmoil, scientific setbacks and the fear of antitrust scrutiny have resulted in a slump of the former highfliers in recent months.