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Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline will buy the oncology biotech company TESARO for $5.1 billion, the companies announced this morning (December 3). “The acquisition of TESARO will strengthen our pharmaceuticals business by accelerating the build of our oncology pipeline and commercial footprint, along with providing access to new scientific capabilities,” says GSK CEO Emma Walmsley in the release.
TESARO’s drug Zejula is a PARP inhibitor approved for treating ovarian cancer. PARP inhibitors block a family of DNA-repair proteins in cancer cells. Zejula is also being evaluated as a potential treatment for lung, breast, and prostate cancer.
See “PARP Inhibitors Are Improving the Outlook of Hard-to-Treat Cancers”
Endpoints News notes that Zejula is one of several PARP inhibitors that have reached the market, after AstraZeneca gained approval in 2014 for the first drug targeting PARP, Lynparza.
The $75 price per share is roughly 60 percent...
The Waltham, Massachusetts–based TESARO employs about 800 people and so far cuts in staff have not been announced, according to Endpoints News.
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