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GSK is closing in on a $1 billion deal to buy the US biotech as the UK drugmaker races to expand its oncology business.
The UK group is in advanced talks to buy privately held biotech IDRx, with venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and RA Capital as well as private equity giant Blackstone among its backers, people close to the talks said. The biotech, which was last valued at $430 million in August, could sell for as much as $1 billion, the people added.
The sale could be announced ahead of next week’s JPMorgan healthcare conference in San Francisco, where biotech deals are often unveiled, the people said, but negotiations are ongoing and a deal could fall through or another buyer could fall through. Emergence
GSK He declined to comment. IDRx did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
IDRx is conducting early phase trials of the targeted therapy in patients with gastrointestinal tumors, or GIST, a type of cancer that affects 4,000 to 6,000 people in the US each year.
Because resistance mutations are present in 80 percent of cancers, existing treatments for GIST are not very effective. The experimental drug IDRx has shown initial signs of addressing this problem.
In a phase-I trial in patients who had tried two other treatments that stopped working, the drug IDRx stopped their tumors from growing for 12.9 months.
Acquiring IDRx will help GSK expand its oncology business, which is smaller than rivals such as Merck and AstraZeneca.
The U.K. drugmaker has prioritized about $1 billion in acquisitions, in part because it has a smaller negotiating budget than many of its peers. But it is in line with current industry trends: by 2024, most Pharmacy Groups Missed out on big deals In favor of small purchases.
Sales of GSK’s cancer drugs are up 94 percent year-over-year to more than $1 billion in the first three quarters of 2024. $1.7 billion acquisition of Sierra Oncology by 2022.
This year, GSK hopes to bring Blenrep, another blood cancer drug, back to the U.S. market after voluntarily withdrawing the treatment in 2022 after failing to beat out rivals in a trial.
GSK announced New results In November for the drug, Blenrep reported “statistically significant and clinically meaningful” results when used with another established treatment.
In oncology, GSK is developing a portfolio of “antibody drug conjugates,” a new type of chemotherapy that aims to kill cancer cells while sparing healthy ones. Late last year, it signed a deal worth up to $975mn with Shanghai-based Duality Bio, an antibody drug combination to treat gastrointestinal cancer, its third ADC in 18 months.
