Pfizer will acquire Global Blood Therapeutics, maker of the drug Oxbryta for sickle-cell disease, in an all-cash deal valued at $5.4 billion, the companies confirmed on Monday. The announcement follows a report in The Wall Street Journal last Friday that indicated the two organizations were in advanced talks.

Pfizer will pay $68.50 a share for GBT, which won Food and Drug Administration approval for sickle-cell disease treatment Oxbryta in 2019. It’s one of only a few drugs marketed for the rare hematologic disease, which affects roughly 100,000 people in the U.S., mostly of African, Middle Eastern and South Asian descent.

If the GBT acquisition goes through, it would also give Pfizer access to the biotech’s sickle-cell disease (SCD) pipeline, which includes two experimental drugs: A once-daily pill (GBT601) for inhibiting sickle hemoglobin polymerization in Phase 2 and a monoclonal antibody (inclacumab) in Phase 3.

If those pan out, the SCD portfolio could have potential worldwide peak sales of more than $3 billion. Oxbryta’s net sales were only $195 million last year, however. Pfizer said it plans to leverage its global platform to sell the treatment in the parts of the world most impacted by SCD.

“Pfizer will broaden and amplify our impact for patients,” said GBT chief executive Ted Love.

For years, the SCD market has gone underserved. That began to change after the late 2019 approval of Oxbryta and Novartis’s own SCD therapy, Adakveo. The drugmakers have been working to increase awareness of their treatments among patients and physicians and break down stigmas. 

Both drugs target the complications of SCD. Bluebird Bio and Pfizer itself have sought to develop a gene therapy for the disease, but success has proven elusive. 

Pfizer, which is sitting on a powder keg of cash in large part thanks to sales of its COVID-19 vaccine and treatment, has been active on the deal-making front. In May the drugmaker announced the purchase of Biohaven Pharmaceuticals for $11.6 billion, giving it access to Biohaven’s migraine portfolio. 

Other notable bolt-on deals announced since the start of the third quarter included Amgen’s $3.7 billion cash deal for ChemoCentryx, Gilead’s $405 million acquisition of privately held MiroBio, and Vertex’s $320 million cash acquisition of ViaCyte. Analysts say the fundamentals are in place for biopharma M&A to heat up further in the second half of the year.