British pharmaceutical company GSK has agreed to buy Nuvalent, a Boston-based cancer biotech firm, for $10.6 billion in what marks the company's largest acquisition ever. GSK will pay $124 per share in cash, sending Nuvalent shares surging 39 percent in premarket trading.
The deal represents a significant expansion of GSK's oncology portfolio and reflects new chief executive Luke Miels' aggressive push into cancer treatments. Miels, who took over at the start of the year, described the acquisition as part of a "brick-by-brick approach" to strengthen the company's drug pipeline.
Nuvalent specializes in developing precision oncology treatments, particularly for lung cancer. The acquisition gives GSK access to two late-stage drugs with major commercial potential. Zidesamtinib and neladalkib are being reviewed by the US Food and Drug Administration, with decisions expected in September and November. Both drugs target non-small cell lung cancer and are expected to launch later this year if approved. Analysts project these could become multi-blockbuster drugs, each generating several billion dollars annually.
The treatments target specific genetic mutations that drive lung cancer in non-smoking adults aged 40 to 50, predominantly women, affecting approximately 4,000 people in the US. Both drugs aim to provide longer effective treatment with improved tolerability and quality of life compared to current options. Miels noted that existing lung cancer treatments require seven to eight years of therapy and often cause patients to gain significant weight. "These are relatively young people. They've got kids, they lead active lives," he said. "Clearly there's a gap for a much better-tolerated product."
Nuvalent was founded in 2017 by Matthew Shair, a Harvard chemistry professor, and went public on the Nasdaq in 2021. Shair holds a 2.16 percent stake and is in line to receive just under $200 million from the sale. Deerfield Management, a New York-based healthcare investment firm, is the company's largest shareholder.
The deal was more than a year in the making, according to Miels, who praised Nuvalent's scientists as an "impressive group of people." GSK also expects to gain a platform for rapid expansion in lung cancer through a pipeline drug called Ris-Rez, which is in late-stage development and targets multiple cancer forms.
This acquisition follows GSK's earlier deal in January to buy California biotech company RAPT for $2.2 billion, which is developing a treatment for severe food allergies. The Nuvalent purchase positions GSK to improve profit contributions from 2027 and supports the company's target of more than 40 billion pounds in annual sales by 2031.