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AstraZeneca Reportedly Approaches Gilead for Potential Merger
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AstraZeneca (AZN - Free Report) approached Gilead Sciences (GILD - Free Report) last month for a potential merger deal, Bloomberg reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The report mentioned that no terms of the transaction were specified and the companies aren’t in formal talk, the people said.
If the two companies were to combine into one, it would be the biggest health-care deal ever, surpassing Bristol-Myers’ (BMY - Free Report) $74 billion purchase of Celgene last year. The combined companies have a market cap of $236 billion as of Friday’s close.
The report also said that Gilead is presently not showing any interest in merging with any other large pharma company. It seems AstraZeneca’s interest in Gilead is due to the latter’s investigational antiviral remdesivir, which is being developed in late-stage studies to treat COVID-19. Also, the FDA has granted emergency-use authorization to remdesivir to treat the disease. Remdesivir was previously under testing for Ebola virus.
AstraZeneca shares have risen 8% so far this year against the industry’s decrease of 1.3%.
Gilead and Roche are also testing remdesivir plus Roche’s (RHHBY - Free Report) Actemra/RoActemra in a phase III study, which began last week in hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia. Meanwhile, Gilead has shifted focus to its HIV franchise and newer avenues like CAR-T therapy due to a massive decline in HCV franchise sales. Its HIV drugs are doing well, driven by the strong performance of Biktarvy.
British drugmaker, AstraZeneca, on the other hand, is also fast moving ahead in its efforts to develop a vaccine to prevent COVID-19. AstraZeneca has an agreement with Oxford University for the global development and distribution of the University’s potential recombinant adenovirus vaccine, also known as AZD1222, to prevent COVID-19. AZD1222 is currently being evaluated in a phase I/II study, which began last month. Data from the study is expected to be released shortly. If the data is successful, late-stage studies with 30,000 participants are expected to begin in a number of countries. AstraZeneca has announced a few supply deals, which will require it toproduce 2 billion doses of the vaccine, if it is successfully developed.
Separately, its marketed drug, Calquence, is being evaluated in the CALAVI study to see its effect on the exaggerated immune response (cytokine storm) of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 infection.
Healthcare merger deals have significantly dried up in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic and related lockdowns. If the AstraZeneca-Gilead deal gets through, it would bring together two companies, which are in the most advanced stages of developing coronavirus treatments/vaccines.
Each was hand-picked by a Zacks expert as the #1 favorite stock to gain +100% or more in 2020. Each comes from a different sector and has unique qualities and catalysts that could fuel exceptional growth.
Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.
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AstraZeneca Reportedly Approaches Gilead for Potential Merger
AstraZeneca (AZN - Free Report) approached Gilead Sciences (GILD - Free Report) last month for a potential merger deal, Bloomberg reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The report mentioned that no terms of the transaction were specified and the companies aren’t in formal talk, the people said.
If the two companies were to combine into one, it would be the biggest health-care deal ever, surpassing Bristol-Myers’ (BMY - Free Report) $74 billion purchase of Celgene last year. The combined companies have a market cap of $236 billion as of Friday’s close.
The report also said that Gilead is presently not showing any interest in merging with any other large pharma company. It seems AstraZeneca’s interest in Gilead is due to the latter’s investigational antiviral remdesivir, which is being developed in late-stage studies to treat COVID-19. Also, the FDA has granted emergency-use authorization to remdesivir to treat the disease. Remdesivir was previously under testing for Ebola virus.
AstraZeneca shares have risen 8% so far this year against the industry’s decrease of 1.3%.
Gilead and Roche are also testing remdesivir plus Roche’s (RHHBY - Free Report) Actemra/RoActemra in a phase III study, which began last week in hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia. Meanwhile, Gilead has shifted focus to its HIV franchise and newer avenues like CAR-T therapy due to a massive decline in HCV franchise sales. Its HIV drugs are doing well, driven by the strong performance of Biktarvy.
British drugmaker, AstraZeneca, on the other hand, is also fast moving ahead in its efforts to develop a vaccine to prevent COVID-19. AstraZeneca has an agreement with Oxford University for the global development and distribution of the University’s potential recombinant adenovirus vaccine, also known as AZD1222, to prevent COVID-19. AZD1222 is currently being evaluated in a phase I/II study, which began last month. Data from the study is expected to be released shortly. If the data is successful, late-stage studies with 30,000 participants are expected to begin in a number of countries. AstraZeneca has announced a few supply deals, which will require it toproduce 2 billion doses of the vaccine, if it is successfully developed.
Separately, its marketed drug, Calquence, is being evaluated in the CALAVI study to see its effect on the exaggerated immune response (cytokine storm) of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 infection.
Healthcare merger deals have significantly dried up in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic and related lockdowns. If the AstraZeneca-Gilead deal gets through, it would bring together two companies, which are in the most advanced stages of developing coronavirus treatments/vaccines.
Both AstraZeneca and Gilead carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
5 Stocks Set to Double
Each was hand-picked by a Zacks expert as the #1 favorite stock to gain +100% or more in 2020. Each comes from a different sector and has unique qualities and catalysts that could fuel exceptional growth.
Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.
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