Gilead Sciences bought three companies for a combined $14.77 billion in under ten weeks, then CFO Andrew Dickinson told investors Tuesday it’s “less likely” the pharma will pursue more sizable M&A this year.
The spree: $7.59 billion for CAR T partner Arcellx in February, $2.18 billion for inflammatory disease-focused Ouro Medicines in March, and $5 billion for German ADC shop Tubulis on April 7. For context, Gilead’s only billion-dollar buy in the prior four years was CymaBay Therapeutics at $4.4 billion in 2024. All three deals close Q2.
What does Gilead actually get? The headline asset is Arcellx’s anitocabtagene autoleucel (anito-cel), a BCMA-targeting CAR T in relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma with an FDA decision due December 2026. CEO Daniel O’Day called it “a transformative and potentially best-in-disease asset” underappreciated by the market. Gilead had already committed $225 million upfront and $100 million in equity to Arcellx when the partnership launched in December 2022.
Tubulis brings TUB-040 for ovarian cancer and a proprietary ADC platform built on P5 phosphorus-based conjugation chemistry. Gilead will run Tubulis as a standalone R&D hub in Munich, the same model it used when it bought Kite Pharma for nearly $12 billion in 2017. Ouro’s lead asset gamgertamig is a T cell engager for autoimmune conditions; Phase 3 trials start as early as 2027.
It’s the fastest M&A pace Gilead has set in four years, and O’Day says the company passed on “dozens of deals” that didn’t clear the bar. FDA decision on anito-cel due December 2026.
— Diana Kowalski