Grading Gilead’s new head of finance

Yesterday, Gilead Sciences picked a new CFO, describing its choice, Andrew Dickinson, with a line poised to stump investors: “He served as the architect of the company’s 2017 acquisition of Kite Pharma, Inc. and of the 10-year, global research collaboration with Galapagos NV announced earlier this year.”

That’s because the Kite deal, which cost nearly $12 billion, is widely viewed as overvalued, as the actual market for CAR-T cancer therapies has thus far fallen short of bullish projections. On the other hand, the $5 billion Galapagos partnership was seen as prudent, giving Gilead access to a needed pipeline of new therapies without forcing it to endure the costly business of acquiring another company outright.

These things tend to have long timetables, and the dynamics around CAR-T could shift to make the Kite deal seem wise, just as the Galapagos agreement could yield little in the way of actual drugs and end up a waste of money. But in the short term, as Jefferies analyst Michael Yee put it, “investors will need patience.”