Pharma giant GSK just made a $5.1 billion bet on a cancer drugmaker (GSK, TSRO)

pulse

December 3, 2018 2:26 PM

Pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline just acquired cancer drugmaker Tesaro for $5.1 billion in a bid to bulk up its cancer pipeline.

Emma Walmsley of GlaxoSmithKline poses in this undated photograph released in London.

GlaxoSmithKline
Tesaro
consumer-genetics company 23andMe.

GlaxoSmithKline is getting deeper into cancer drug development.

On Monday, the UK-based pharma giant said it had agreed to acquire Tesaro, a cancer drugmaker with a treatment for ovarian cancer, for $5.1 billion.

Tesaro was up 60% on the news before markets opened Monday while GSK was down 6%.

GSK has been working to refresh its research-and-development strategy. In 2017, GSK brought on Hal Barron, a former Genentech and Calico executive, as its chief scientific officer and president of R&D.

As part of that, the company made a $300 million investment in the consumer-genetics company 23andme. GSK also said in July that it planned to focus its research efforts on developing new treatments that act on the body's immune system.

"BRCA

Tesaro makes a cancer drug called Zejula, which is used to treat ovarian cancer.

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