New Gilead Sciences CFO Expected to Pursue More Deals to Expand Portfolio
October 15 2019 - 6:03PM
Dow Jones News
By Nina Trentmann
Biopharmaceutical giant Gilead Sciences Inc. selected an
internal candidate to become its next finance chief, filling a key
position on its leadership team as the company looks to further
expand its portfolio beyond its core HIV treatments.
The Foster City, Calif.-based company Tuesday said it appointed
Andrew Dickinson as chief financial officer, effective Nov. 1. Mr.
Dickinson, currently executive vice president for corporate
development and strategy, joined Gilead in 2016 following a
nine-year tenure in investment banking. He will succeed Robin
Washington, who is set to retire from the CFO role but will remain
in an advisory capacity until early next year. Ms. Washington's
planned retirement was announced in April.
Chief Executive Daniel O'Day -- who took the reins this year
after a career at Roche Holding AG -- in recent months made several
key appointments at Gilead, including a new chief medical officer
and a new head of its commercial division. "With the new CEO, CMO
and CFO now in place, this effectively marks the end of a
transition period for the company," analysts at RBC Capital Markets
LLC wrote in a note to clients.
Gilead described Mr. Dickinson as the architect behind the
company's 2017 $11.9 billion acquisition of Kite Pharma Inc., a
maker of cancer drugs, and its recent research and development
collaboration with Belgium-based Galapagos NV, a company focusing
on inflammation and immunology treatments.
Mr. Dickinson "transformed the way that the company approaches
corporate development, expanding the kinds of transactions executed
and implementing a broader and more strategic approach to
deal-making," Gilead said in a statement.
Analysts expect Gilead to pursue more deals once Mr. Dickinson
has established himself as CFO. "They are putting together a team
of people who would be very capable of doing that," said Alethia
Young, head of health-care research at Cantor Fitzgerald, a
financial services firm. "They are messaging that by putting this
type of CFO in place."
Gilead declined to comment beyond details included in a press
release.
Gilead's balance sheet -- with $30.2 billion in cash, cash
equivalents and marketable debt securities at the end of June --
provides Mr. Dickinson with ample flexibility, analysts said.
"They have the balance sheet to do multiple deals with
early-stage companies," said Mohit Bansal, a vice president for
equity research at Citigroup Inc. Mr. Bansal said he expects the
company to spend several billion dollars on transactions similar to
the one with Galapagos.
Gilead has various options, including a continued expansion into
oncology treatments, cures for hepatitis B or inflammation and
immunology drugs, said Salim Syed, head of biotechnology research
at Mizuho Americas LLC, a corporate and investment bank. "They have
a CFO now that has a history as a mergers-and-acquisitions banker,"
Mr. Syed said. "Capital allocation becomes a really important
question at this point."
Before his time at Gilead, Mr. Dickinson worked for nine years
at Lazard Ltd., where he was global co-head of health-care
investment banking, and at Myogen Inc., a biopharmaceutical company
that was acquired by Gilead in 2006.
Gilead's shares rose 1.2% Tuesday to $65.30.
Write to Nina Trentmann at nina.trentmann@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 15, 2019 17:48 ET (21:48 GMT)
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