“We are bringing together two organizations with a shared vision to make cancer a chronic illness while we work toward a cure,” Chief Executive Mark Alles said on a Monday call with investors.
The deal could be an much needed injection to Celgene after company shares lost almost 30% of its value since October after investors sold off on concerns over patent challenges to its revenue-generator Revlimid, weak sales of its psoriasis drug Otezla and failed attempts at an experimental Chrohn’s disease drug.
“Celgene is in a desperate situation,” Brad Loncar, chief executive of Loncar Investments, which runs the Loncar Cancer Immunotherapy ETF, told Reuters. “Their revenue growth is running out of gas and they needed to fix this immediately.”
The Loncar Cancer Immunotheraphy ETF (NasdaqGM: CNCR), which tracks companies that are developing new classes of therapies and includes a 4.5% position in JUNO, rose 4.6% Monday.
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