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Celgene looking at CAR-T buy
Posted 17 January 2018
Celgene is reportedly looking at what could be its second big acquisition for 2018 with US reports it is in discussions to purchase a CAR-T therapy.
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday Celgene was looking to buy Juno Therapeutics, which has a market value of USD5.57 billion.
A US biotech, Celgene specialises in cancer and has already agreed to pay up to USD7 billion this year to buy Impact Biomedicines, adding a late-stage JAK2 inhibitor to its pipeline.
Should the Juno deal also go ahead, Celgene would add an additional late-stage chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, or CAR-T drug, to its pipeline.
CAR-T drugs are expected to be the next big leap forward in cancer therapies, with Novartis successfully having the first therapy Kymriah approved in the US last year.
Gilead also invested heavily in the new therapy area in 2017, paying USD12 billion to acquire Yescarta in a buy-out of Kite Pharmaceuticals, only to be rewarded quickly after with a US green light for the therapy. Gilead has said it is looking to bring Yescarta to Australia.
Juno does not yet have any FDA approvals for its CAR-T but did release promising data from early trials as a blood cancer treatment in November.
While Gilead and Celgene appear to be prepared to pay billions to add the new therapy to their pipelines, the rewards also appear large with the promise of strong income streams.
Kymriah, approved for B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia, is priced at USD475,000 while Yescarta, indicated for refractory large B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, is priced at USD373,000.
Despite the high price tags, the US non-profit Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) has concluded the therapies are cost-effective.
ICER this month assessed the clinical effectiveness of CAR-T therapies in contrast with chemotherapy, considering patient survival, quality of life, and healthcare costs over the lifetime of the patient.
It found the new therapies significantly extended the lives of some patients - on average much more than traditional chemotherapy.
Megan Brodie
Posted 17 January 2018
Celgene is reportedly looking at what could be its second big acquisition for 2018 with US reports it is in discussions to purchase a CAR-T therapy.
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday Celgene was looking to buy Juno Therapeutics, which has a market value of USD5.57 billion.
A US biotech, Celgene specialises in cancer and has already agreed to pay up to USD7 billion this year to buy Impact Biomedicines, adding a late-stage JAK2 inhibitor to its pipeline.
Should the Juno deal also go ahead, Celgene would add an additional late-stage chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, or CAR-T drug, to its pipeline.
CAR-T drugs are expected to be the next big leap forward in cancer therapies, with Novartis successfully having the first therapy Kymriah approved in the US last year.
Gilead also invested heavily in the new therapy area in 2017, paying USD12 billion to acquire Yescarta in a buy-out of Kite Pharmaceuticals, only to be rewarded quickly after with a US green light for the therapy. Gilead has said it is looking to bring Yescarta to Australia.
Juno does not yet have any FDA approvals for its CAR-T but did release promising data from early trials as a blood cancer treatment in November.
While Gilead and Celgene appear to be prepared to pay billions to add the new therapy to their pipelines, the rewards also appear large with the promise of strong income streams.
Kymriah, approved for B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia, is priced at USD475,000 while Yescarta, indicated for refractory large B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, is priced at USD373,000.
Despite the high price tags, the US non-profit Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) has concluded the therapies are cost-effective.
ICER this month assessed the clinical effectiveness of CAR-T therapies in contrast with chemotherapy, considering patient survival, quality of life, and healthcare costs over the lifetime of the patient.
It found the new therapies significantly extended the lives of some patients - on average much more than traditional chemotherapy.
Megan Brodie
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