Gilead Sciences (GILD) is finally making an acquisition.
The company announced that it is acquiring Nimbus Apollo Inc. and its Acetyl-CoA Carboxylase (ACC) inhibitor program for the treatment of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and the potential treatment of liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma or HCC) and other diseases.
Nimbus Apollo is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nimbus Therapeutics. According to the terms of the agreement, Nimbus will receive an upfront payment of $400M and up to $800M in milestones. Last year, when there was growing speculation over what will GILD acquire, I had predicted that the company would look to make an acquisition in the liver space as it already has an established franchise in this space. With the acquisition, GILD now has four NASH drugs in its pipeline.
NASH treatment market is expected to be worth $40 billion, according to analysts at Deutsche Bank.
