Gilead jumps into epigenetics with a bite-size biotech buyout

As market watchers wonder whether Gilead Sciences ($GILD) is on the verge of a blockbuster buyout, the Big Biotech inked a small deal that will beef up its efforts in the growing field of epigenetics. The company is paying $65 million cash for Denmark's EpiTherapeutics, a small company with a stable of preclinical treatments that promise to modify the overarching systems that govern heritable genes and how they express themselves, known as epigenetics. EpiTherapeutics' work to date has largely focused on small-molecule treatments for cancer, but the biotech's technology has promise in a wealth of diseases and in combination with other therapies, Gilead said. Release