Gilead Sciences Inc. paid $11.9bn for Kite Pharma Inc. in a deal that closed earlier this month and will soon reap rewards from that long-awaited transaction following the Oct. 18 US FDA approval of Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel), but its return on investment won't come at a market-leading price.
The autologous CD19-targeting chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) therapy was approved for adults with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma after two or more lines of systemic therapy and Gilead priced the one-time treatment at $373,000. While that's 21