Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day says the company will likely look for more deals like its $4.3 billion purchase of CymaBay Therapeutics over the next few years, rather than big buys costing tens of billions of dollars.
“I believe that we’ll continue to look at smaller deals — think mid-single-digit billions on average — every few years,” O’Day said. The CymbaBay move gave Gilead access to seladelpar, a late-stage primary biliary cholangitis treatment awaiting an FDA decision slated for the middle of August.
“But you’re not likely to see us engaged in any sizable, like Immunomedics-sized deals in the near term,” O’Day added. That 2020 transaction cost Gilead $21 billion and brought in the cancer treatment Trodelvy, which has faced a handful of setbacks recently.
O’Day made the comments Wednesday at the Goldman Sachs 45th Annual Global Healthcare Conference.
His sentiment echoes what other top pharma executives have said about M&A, despite an estimated $1 trillion in dealmaking capital up for grabs, according to an analysis by EY published earlier this month. Bristol Myers Squibb CEO Chris Boerner has said his company is likely to look for bolt-ons after a flurry of December 2023 acquisitions, while Merck CEO Rob Davis has maintained he’s not going for giant swings. And Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said Monday at the Goldman confab that his company is in “a breathing period” after major acquisitions including its $43 billion Seagen buy.