GSK to buy US cancer treatment firm Nuvalent for $10.6bn

GSK’s new boss Luke Miels has struck one of the British drugmaker’s biggest deals, announcing the $10.6bn (£7.9bn) acquisition of a US cancer specialist with two-late stage medications.

The FTSE 100 company is boosting its oncology portfolio by agreeing to buy Nuvalent, a Boston-based company that develops cancer drugs, including three for lung cancer.

The deal includes two late-stage next-generation treatments for non-small cell lung cancer which are being reviewed by the US regulator, the FDA, with decisions expected in September and November.

The drugs, zidesamtinib and neladalkib, are expected to launch later this year, assuming they are approved, and could be multi-blockbusters with annual revenues of several billion dollars each. Both aim for longer effective treatment with better quality of life with improved tolerability targeting mutations that drive lung cancer. Those mutations affect non-smoking adults aged 40-50, mostly female.

It is the latest in a string of deals announced by Miels since he took over from Emma Walmsley as chief executive at the start of the year, and GSK’s biggest acquisition ever.

The biggest deal it was involved in was an asset swap announced with Novartis in 2014 that was valued at about $21bn. GSK took over the Swiss company’s vaccines division for $5.25bn and sold its cancer portfolio to Novartis for $16bn under its then chief executive Andrew Witty.

Miels, who was previously GSK’s chief commercial officer, is continuing the push into oncology that was begun by Walmsley from 2017, but has surprised investors with the size of the latest deal, after smaller bolt-on acquisitions in recent years.

He said: “Today’s acquisition is a multi-product deal, consistent with our approach to acquire assets that have clinically proven targets and meaningfully address an efficacy and/or tolerability gap. The two lead products are potential best-in-class assets that could launch this year if approved by the FDA and offer significant new treatment options to patients with two forms of non-small cell lung cancer.”

He said the purchase provided GSK with immediate new sales growth opportunities, improving profit contributions from 2027, and a platform in lung cancer for rapid expansion with a product called Ris-Rez that is in late-stage clinical development.

GSK hopes that Ris-Rez could treat multiple forms of cancer, and it is expected to contribute to its target of more than £40bn in annual sales by 2031.