Deal of the decade! AstraZeneca Marries Gilead

AstraZeneca-Gilead Merger News

AstraZeneca-Gilead Merger News – Read More Deal Details

Deal of the decade! Astra marries Gilead. 

Scene 1:

Once upon a time, Somewhere in the Amazon:

Zena was an old tree in the huge forest. It was popular because of the medicinal value it possessed. It helped to cure the animals of their sickness. 

Gilly was a wise little squirrel that lived near the old tree, and one day, it found a ‘magic nut.’ This nut had the superpower of curing animals much faster. 

Zena thought of becoming friends with Gilly so that they could work together for the overall betterment of the animals in a quicker way possible. 

As told by a great American author, Helen Keller, and I quote -“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”  

When there was a pandemic, it was all of us versus the virus. Many countries helped and worked together to fight against the deadly virus. 

Scene 2: 

Recently, the UK-based giant pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, which is worth nearly $140 billion, has informally approached for a merger with the US-based biopharma company Gilead Sciences. The latter is valued at approximately $96 billion.

Gilead is known to purchase only smaller

companies, and till now, it hasn’t shown much interest in major deals. But if this deal worked out, it would make for the world’s largest pharmaceutical company. It will be even larger than the big merger that occurred recently between Bristol-Myers Squibb and Celgene, which was valued at $87.6bn in November 2019.  

One of the primary reasons behind this merger is the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. And the consequences of the spread of the virus that the world is facing. There is still some ongoing demand for treatments for COVID-19. 

Gilead is already a key player in COVID-19 therapy with its drug Remdesivir. This drug has proven to have placed patients in recovery mode sooner and possibly brought big profits if governments end up stockpiling the drug. It was estimated that Remdesivir has the potential to bring in more than $7bn in annual sales by the end of 2022. 

AstraZeneca is working on a likely COVID-19 vaccine so that a merger might strengthen both companies in this battle against the virus

Difficulties in the merger

It is calculated that this deal might not be that easy to pull off. Gilead is doing pretty well on its own and has solid profits and growth. 

Gilead achieved a net income of $5.4bn in 2019 because of Remdesivir, and it was expecting a 5% increase in its revenue each year. 

Big mergers usually occur in scenarios where one company is financially struggling, which is definitely not the case here, so it’s unclear if Gilead would be open for this merger.

As the famous proverb goes, “Two heads are better than one.” we all must agree that by brainstorming and sharing ideas together, any team can gradually develop a strategy to overcome many challenges. Collaboration might seem more complicated than working alone, but the result usually remains extraordinary. Great leaders realize this and always try to build on the strength of teamwork. 

AstraZeneca-Gilead Merger News – Read More Deal Details