Gilead Sciences on Monday agreed to buy Kite Pharma for $11.9 billion in an all-cash deal.
The Wall Street Journal reported first reported the deal, citing people familiar with the matter.
Gilead will pay $180 per share, representing a 29 percent premium over Kite’s Friday close.
Kite is one of the leading players in an emerging field called CAR-T, or chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, which harnesses the body’s own immune cells to recognize and attack malignant cells.
Kite’s shares were halted in premarket trading on Monday, while Gilead’s shares were up 2.7 percent.