Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) is to pay US$5.4bn in cash to acquire sickle cell disease drugmaker Global Blood Therapeutics, Inc (NASDAQ:GBT) (GBT) as the pharma major looks to leverage the booming revenue from its Covid-19 vaccine and treatment.
Pfizer will pay US$68.50 per GBT share, which represents a 7.3% premium over Friday's closing price and nearly 43% over Thursday's closing price.
GBT, which was founded in 2011, makes Oxybryta, a treatment for sickle cell disease, which will boost Pfizer's work in rare haematology, along with two other pipeline assets – GBT601 and inclacumab – targeting the same condition.
Oxbryta is expected to make at least US$260mln in sales this year, three years after gaining regulatory approval, and if the other assets are approved, Pfizer believes GBT's drugs would generate more than US$3bn in sales annually at their peak.
Pfizer's revenue of US$81.3bn in 2021 nearly doubled from the previous year thanks to the sale of its Covid-19 vaccine, and with the addition of Covid-19 pill Paxlovid, Pfizer expects to generate around US$100bn in revenue this year, though both products' sales are expected to decline going forward.
Using the cash pile built up from the vaccine sales and to stem the post-vaccine drop, Pfizer has announced deals valued at nearly US$19bn since late last year, as it plans to acquire companies that could generate billions of dollars in annual sales by the end of the decade.
A US$11.6bn deal was struck by Pfizer in May to acquire migraine drug maker Biohaven Pharmaceutical, and a US$6.7bn deal was recently completed with Arena Pharmaceuticals, a move into the cannabis-derived drugs space.
ReViral Ltd, which is developing a respiratory syncytial virus treatment, was also acquired by Pfizer in April.
London-listed BioPharma Credit PLC (LSE:BPCR) said it has a US$132.5mln investment in a senior secured loan to GBT which would be prepaid upon the closing of the transaction. The loan was invested in three different tranches with each tranche subject to different prepayment economics.
Assuming the prepayment occurs on October 1, 2022, BioPharma Credit would be expected to receive approximately US$38mln in paydown, prepayment and make-whole fees, it said in a statement.