Gilead to Buy Pharmasset for $11B for Hepatitis

Gilead Sciences Inc. agreed to buy Pharmasset Inc. for about $11 billion in cash to add experimental treatments for the hepatitis C virus.

Gilead will pay $137 a share, 89 percent more than the closing price for Pharmasset shares on Nov. 18, the companies said in a statement today. The purchase will reduce Gilead’s earnings through 2014 and then add to profit, Gilead said.

The acquisition will give Foster City, California-based Gilead three potential treatments for chronic hepatitis C that Pharmasset has in clinical development. Pharmasset, based in Princeton, New Jersey, is developing oral drugs for the illness, which now is largely treated by injections.

“The acquisition of Pharmasset represents an important and exciting opportunity to accelerate Gilead’s effort to change the treatment paradigm for HCV-infected patients by developing all- oral regimens for the treatment of the disease regardless of viral genotype,” Gilead Chief Executive Officer John C. Martin said in the statement.