Celgene (NASDAQ: CELG) is in talks to buy biotechnology company Juno Therapeutics (NASDAQ: JUNO), according to a story Wednesday morning in the Wall Street Journal.
The news comes less than a week after the biotech giant announced it would buy Impact Biomedicines for $7 billion. Both Impact and Juno offer drugs that could boost Celgene in the market for blood-cancer treatment.
Celgene has been fighting to diversify its portfolio before its best-selling blood-cancer drug, Revlimid, loses patent protection, the Journal reported.
Jefferies analysts called the potential acquisition "smart," because "the buyout would enable Celgene to integrate Juno's entire cell therapy platform and bring it all in house."
Celgene has had an estimated $500-million stake in Juno since September 2017, according to a report from Jefferies.
Talks could lead to a deal in the coming weeks, sources familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. Terms of a possible deal were not revealed.
Juno does not yet have any approvals from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its CAR T drugs, but it released promising data from early trials for a blood cancer treatment in November.
It has had previous setbacks in developing the treatments, and shut down development of one leukemia treatment due to severe neurotoxicity that led to five patient deaths.
Still, CAR T treatments are expected to be blockbusters for drug makers, costing up to $500,000 and generating billions of dollars in sales.
Celgene shares declined $2.22, or 2.1%, as the clock approached noon ET on Wednesday, to $102.60, while Juno’s shares galloped $23.02, or 50.5%, to $68.62
