Gilead’s bid for Immunomedics exceeded rival offer by nearly $8B

A pair of trial readouts rapidly spurred interest in a deal for Immunomedics, with multiple suitors engaging with the biotech as talks escalated from partnership discussions to Gilead’s winning takeout bid — though that company outbid a rival biopharma by nearly 50% at the outset, and continued to sweeten the deal.

Months of conversations preceded the final $88-per-share offer from Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) that led to its Sept. 13 deal to acquire Immunomedics Inc. (NASDAQ:IMMU) for more than twice the company’s market value, according to a new regulatory filing. The $21 billion acquisition gave Gilead rights to Trodelvy sacituzumab govitecan-hziy, an antibody-drug conjugate targeting TROP2 that has won FDA approval to treat metastatic triple-negative breast cancer in a third-line setting (see “High Premium Shows Confidence in ADC’s Value”)...