Gilead needs to stop wait­ing and start buy­ing; Let's em­brace Chi­na as a new bio­phar­ma pow­er

End­points as­sess­es the big bio­phar­ma R&D sto­ries of the week, with a lit­tle added com­men­tary on what they mean for the in­dus­try.

 Gilead needs to start buy­ing things — pron­to

Gilead once had one of the best rep­u­ta­tions in R&D. Its abil­i­ty to hus­tle through a pack­age of hep C cures was done at a jaw-drop­ping speed and de­liv­ered the goods with first-mover ad­van­tage in rev­o­lu­tion­iz­ing a mar­ket and dis­ease treat­ment. But what have you done for in­vestors late­ly, Gilead? A string of set­backs in the clin­ic has high­light­ed that Gilead isn’t im­mune from the high fail­ure rate in bio­phar­ma. And with­out a big, quick as­sist, its num­bers are go­ing to keep shrink­ing. It’s time to take that big stash of cash and, per­haps with the help of the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion, get it back in­to cir­cu­la­tion with a cou­ple of ma­jor ac­qui­si­tions that can have an im­me­di­ate im­pact. Any sell­er will see Gilead com­ing from miles away, and will write down a mag­ic num­ber that would of­fend most buy­ers. In this mar­ket, buy­ers can’t be choosers when it comes to su­pe­ri­or deals. Gilead will have to pay top dol­lar. The com­pa­ny wait­ed too long, hop­ing that the pipeline would come to its res­cue. Wrong. Call up the BD team and get mov­ing.

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