Completing long comeback, liver play CymaBay agrees to $4.3B Gilead takeout 

After weathering a 2019 safety scare for lead candidate seladelpar in a MASH study, CymaBay pursued a renewed focus on developing the PPARδ agonist to treat primary biliary cholangitis. That decision paid off Monday in two ways, as Gilead said it would acquire the biotech for $4.3 billion just as FDA granted the program a goal date under priority review.

The deal reflects the continued trend of biopharma M&A around late-stage or marketed assets, rather than earlier-stage assets or platforms, to restock their pipelines with relatively de-risked medicines...