acquisition
Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals, Inc.AbbVie Inc.
- Target
- Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
- Acquirer or investor
- AbbVie Inc.
- Upfront
- $900m
- Contingent
- $300m
- Headline total
- $1.2bn
- Currency
- USD
- Status
- closed
- Close date
- 1 October 2025
- Geography
- US
- Lead asset
- bretisilocin (GM-2505)
- Phase
- Phase 2
- Indication
- major depressive disorder
Structure
Quoted from AbbVie's Q3 2025 Form 10-Q, Note 4: 'AbbVie made an upfront cash payment of approximately $900 million to acquire all outstanding equity of Gilgamesh. AbbVie could make additional payments of up to $300 million upon achievement of development milestones.' As part of the transaction Gilgamesh spun off a new independent entity operating as Gilgamesh Pharma Inc. to retain its employees and other programs, including an existing option-to-license agreement with AbbVie which remains in effect. Disclosed as a subsequent event; XBRL context dates the acquisition 2025-10-01. No 8-K exists for this deal - AbbVie filed no Item 1.01 or 2.01 8-K in the Jul-Oct 2025 window, all five 8-Ks being Item 2.02 earnings or 7.01. Terms are therefore taken from the 10-Q, which is still a primary SEC filing. The announcement date reported elsewhere as 2025-08-25 is NOT filing-verified; the date column carries the completion date instead. No FX conversion.
Why it matters
Large pharma buying a psychedelic outright, a year before Lilly. The 10-Q describes GM-2505 as a short-acting 5-HT2A receptor agonist and 5-HT releaser, which is a company-filed mechanism statement and rare in this field. Bretisilocin is also the compound that entered the EMA PRIME scheme in March 2026, making it the one asset in this file with a live European regulatory track.
Sourcing
- Source type
- sec_filing
- Verified
- 26 August 2026
- Confidence
- verified