The Wall Street Journal: Gilead shares rise after FDA approves cell-therapy drug Yescarta

Gilead Sciences Inc.’s $11 billion bet on Kite Pharma Inc. is poised to pay off, with the approval Wednesday of Kite’s flagship cell-therapy treatment for advanced lymphoma patients.

The therapy, known as a Car-T treatment, uses genetically engineered T-cells to attack the blood cancer. It is the second such therapy to get a regulatory green light, after Novartis AG’s

NVS, -0.35%

  Car-T drug Kymriah was approved in late August.

Like Novartis’s therapy, which was priced at $475,000, Gilead’s treatment commands a six-figure list price. Gilead

GILD, -0.29%

  said the therapy, dubbed Yescarta, will have a list price of $373,000.

Yescarta, the crown jewel of the Gilead’s recent purchase of biotech Kite Pharma, has been among the most highly anticipated new drugs on Wall Street, which estimates the therapy will have $1.7 billion in world-wide sales in five years, according to EvaluatePharma, a market-research firm.

Gilead shares jumped more than 3% after hours following the announcement.

An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.

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