Out­bid­ding 14 oth­ers and then them­selves: How Am­gen spent $2 bil­lion on a biotech that had been on the brink

In the sum­mer of 2020, you could get a share of Five Prime Ther­a­peu­tics for less than a lat­te, but the com­pa­ny’s lead­er­ship knew that could soon change.

Five Prime was near­ing a read­out on their Phase II tri­al for gas­tric can­cer. If it proved suc­cess­ful, it could re­turn them to the perch they had lost in 2017, when a Bris­tol My­ers Squibb-part­nered drug flopped and tanked their shares. So they met with the board twice in June and twice in Au­gust to de­cide what would come next.

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