GSK bets $3.3B on a buy­out, jump­ing in­to a block­buster show­down with Pfiz­er and Mer­ck

Count GSK in for the pneu­mo­coc­cal vac­cine race.

The British phar­ma is wa­ger­ing $2.1 bil­lion in cash — plus up to $1.2 bil­lion in mile­stones — to buy out Affini­vax and its 24-va­lent pneu­mo­coc­cal vac­cine can­di­date, now in Phase II, as well as the tech­nol­o­gy that gave birth to the shot.

“The pro­posed ac­qui­si­tion fur­ther strength­ens our vac­cines R&D pipeline, pro­vides ac­cess to a new, po­ten­tial­ly dis­rup­tive tech­nol­o­gy, and broad­ens GSK’s ex­ist­ing sci­en­tif­ic foot­print in the Boston area,” said out­go­ing R&D chief Hal Bar­ron, who’s leav­ing in Au­gust to run the cell re­ju­ve­na­tion start­up Al­tos Labs.

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