Pfizer In $5B Talks To Buy Global Blood Therapeutics

Pfizer Inc. is in advanced talks to buy Global Blood Therapeutics Inc., the maker of a recently approved drug for sickle-cell disease, for about $5 billion, in the latest move by the drug giant to bolster its portfolio and pipeline.

Pfizer is aiming to seal a deal for GBT in the coming days, according to people familiar with the matter. The situation is still fluid, and other suitors are still in the mix, some of the people said. GBT announces its second-quarter results Monday.

Bloomberg reported earlier this week that potential buyers were circling GBT, without naming them. The shares shot up on the news, adding to earlier gains since the spring. They closed Thursday at $47.99, giving GBT a market value of just over $3 billion.

GBT, of South San Francisco, was founded in 2011. Buying the company would add to Pfizer’s presence in rare diseases, furnishing a drug already on sale for the treatment of sickle-cell disease as well as two in development that have produced positive results in preliminary studies.

The commercial treatment, called Oxbryta and approved in December, had just over $55 million in first-quarter sales.

Sickle-cell disease is an inherited blood disorder affecting about 100,000 people in the U.S., including 1 in 13 who are Black. Pfizer has been interested in sickle cell, but a drug it had been developing failed in 2019. It has another one in early-stage development.

There had been few drugs treating the disease, but it has drawn the interest of researchers in recent years due to scientific advances in understanding its molecular roots. Treatments like Oxbryta could face competition from gene therapies in development.