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Business News/ Companies / Gilead to buy Pharmasset for $11 bn
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Gilead to buy Pharmasset for $11 bn

Gilead to buy Pharmasset for $11 bn

Photo: BloombergPremium

Photo: Bloomberg

New York: Gilead Sciences Inc struck a deal to buy Pharmasset Inc for about $11 billion in a huge bet on hepatitis C treatments to diversify its portfolio.

Photo: Bloomberg

Pharmasset has been one of the hottest biotech companies, based on the promise of its experimental hepatitis C medicines.

Its shares have soared in the past year on the potential for its oral drugs to create a regimen without interferons, which cause flu-like side effects that lead many patients with the serious liver disease to stop or delay treatment.

Pharmasset has three hepatitis C medicines in clinical trials. Its lead candidate, PSI-7977, recently been advanced into two Phase III studies.

Gilead projected the deal would hurt its earnings through 2014. It is expected to close in the first quarter of next year, when Gilead plans to provide further outlook.

Gilead said it had commitments from Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Barclays Capital for financing of the transaction.

Barclays and Bank of America advised Gilead on the deal, while Morgan Stanley advised Pharmasset. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP is Gilead’s legal counsel, while Sullivan & Cromwell LLP is serving as legal counsel to Pharmasset.

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Published: 21 Nov 2011, 06:29 PM IST
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