(Bloomberg) -- Celgene Corp. is nearing an accord to acquire closely held Impact Biomedicines Inc. to expand its presence in oncology, according to people familiar with the matter.
An agreement could be announced as early as Monday, said the people, who asked not to be identified because talks are private. The deal could still be delayed or fall apart, they said. The Wall Street Journal said Celgene could pay as much as $7 billion over time for the asset.
Representatives for Celgene couldn't be reached outside business hours. A spokeswoman for San Diego, California-based Impact didn't immediately comment.
Celgene, under pressure to replace revenue from its top-selling cancer treatment before copycat drugs eat into Revlimid sales, has made a spate of acquisitions and signed partnerships to bring in new drug candidates. Those include ozanimod, which it gained through a $7.2 billion acquisition of Receptos Inc. Ozanimod is being tested in Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis and multiple sclerosis.
The biotech's stock has declined about 12 percent in the past year, valuing Summit, New Jersey-based Celgene at about $83 billion. In October, the company reported that another highly anticipated drug for Crohn's failed a late-stage trial. A week later, it delivered a bigger blow to investors by lowering its 2020 profit target and indicating that one of its current bestsellers isn't doing that well either.
Chief Executive Officer Mark Alles has pledged to look outside Celgene's own labs for new drugs to bolster its pipeline, telling investors in October that “we look for opportunity all the time.”
--With assistance from Caroline Chen
To contact the reporters on this story: Aaron Kirchfeld in London at akirchfeld@bloomberg.net, Ed Hammond in New York at ehammond12@bloomberg.net, Manuel Baigorri in London at mbaigorri@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Aaron Kirchfeld at akirchfeld@bloomberg.net, Chitra Somayaji
©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
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