Celgene to Buy Juno Therapeutics for $9 Billion -- 2nd Update
23 January 2018 - 3:19AM
Dow Jones News
By Cara Lombardo
Celgene Corp. on Monday said it agreed to buy Juno Therapeutics
Inc. for $87 a share in cash, or about $9 billion, in a move that
will expand Celgene's portfolio of blood-cancer drugs.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week the two companies
were in deal talks.
The deal will add a lymphoma treatment, expected to gain
regulatory approval in 2019, to Celgene's portfolio. Celgene said
the treatment, called JCAR017, has the potential to reach peak
global sales of $3 billion.
"We are bringing together two organizations with a shared vision
to make cancer a chronic illness while we work toward a cure,"
Chief Executive Mark Alles said on a Monday call with
investors.
Earlier this month, Celgene agreed to buy closely held Impact
Biomedicines. The deal calls for Celgene to pay $1.1 billion
upfront and the company could make billions of dollars of
additional payments if Impact hits certain regulatory-approval
milestones.
Celgene, based in Summit, N.J., is one of the biggest U.S.
biotech companies. It is known for its blood-cancer drugs, notably
top-selling product Revlimid, but has been trying to diversify its
portfolio before Revlimid loses patent protection in the U.S.
Seattle-based Juno is one of the companies pioneering a new kind
of cancer treatment, known as CAR-T, that takes a patient's own
immune cells, modifies them and then sets them loose to hunt down
and attack tumors. Two CAR-T treatments have gained U.S. Food and
Drug Administration approval, one from Novartis AG and one from
Gilead Sciences Inc., which paid more than $10 billion for Kite
Pharma and its CAR-T technology.
One unanswered question is whether the drugs under development
will be limited to treating cancers affecting the production of
blood cells like myeloma and leukemia or whether they can extend to
solid tumors, such as breast and lung cancer. Celgene executives
told investors on a call Monday they "humbly believe" that it
will.
Celgene executives also said the company will continue looking
for acquisitions.
Celgene plans to expand into Juno's research and development
facility in Seattle and manufacturing facility in Bothell, Wash.
The company said the deal doesn't change its 2020 financial targets
of net product sales of $19 billion to $20 billion and adjusted
earnings per share of more than $12.50.
The deal, which has been approved by both companies' boards, is
still subject to closing conditions. Celgene expects the
transaction to close in the first quarter.
Juno shares jumped 27% in early trading Monday, while Celgene
shares slid 1.2%.
Write to Cara Lombardo at cara.lombardo@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 22, 2018 11:04 ET (16:04 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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