Seagen, what does the biotech on which Pfizer focuses
According to the Wall Street Journal, Pfizer would be ready to buy the biotech Seagen for more than 30 billion dollars. Here's what he'd gain
Everything is still in its initial stages but Pfizer has come forward to acquire the Washington-based biotech Seagen. This was revealed by the Wall Street Journal , which speaks of an operation worth over 30 billion dollars.
But what does Seagen do and why is Pfizer interested?
NEGOTIATION
Merck had tried last year, the negotiations were at an advanced stage and the value of the agreement was around 40 billion dollars but it didn't go through. Now, Pfizer proves it which, according to the Wall Street Journal, is in talks to acquire Seagen, whose market value is approximately 30 billion dollars, to which a premium for the acquisition of the majority should be added.
However, observes the newspaper, at the moment "there is no guarantee that an agreement will be reached" because several obstacles would have to be overcome, including the possibility of a severe review by the Antitrust.
WHAT SEAGEN DOES AND WHY EVERYONE WANT IT
Seagen, which had nearly $2 billion in sales last year, specializes in the development and commercialization of cancer treatments.
So far, the biotech has helped create a class of anticancer therapies known as antibody-drug conjugates which, as Pharmastar explains, "act by delivering powerful cytotoxic drugs to tumor cells, which are tolerable thanks to the specificity with which they attack tumor cells, made possible by 'monoclonal antibody'.
THE THERAPIES OF SEAGEN
Some of Seagen's antibody-drug conjugates are Adcetris , which recently received a label expansion for pediatric patients with high-risk classical Hodgkin lymphoma, and Tukysa , which received accelerated approval for use with Herceptin by Roche for patients with a specific type of HER2-positive colorectal cancer .
Other Seagen therapies have shown promise alone or in combination with immunotherapy against certain types of cancer, including a form of breast cancer. And the potential found in this case could be very interesting for Pfizer, which treats the disease with one of its successful drugs, Ibrance. Indeed, the potential agreement for the WSJ would allow Pfizer to acquire "a promising class of targeted oncological therapies".
PFIZER BUSINESS
Pfizer, with a turnover of 100 billion dollars in 2022, of which about 22.7 billion deriving from the sale of its vaccines and anti-Covid drugs, certainly does not have liquidity problems. Last year, it acquired sickle cell drugmaker Global Blood Therapeutics for $5.4 billion and Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holdings for $11.6 billion.
THE DOUBTS OF THE ANALYST
“When you look at the motivations behind both companies, I agree that Pfizer needs that $17 billion revenue gap from loss of exclusivity by 2030 [due to expiring patents, ed ]. So it makes sense to look at big companies like Seagen,” Andy Hsieh, an analyst at investment bank William Blair, told Endpoints News .
Additionally, Pfizer has set a goal of adding $25 billion in revenue by the end of the decade through business development initiatives, including acquisitions.
“On the other hand, however – he added -, Seagen has just appointed a new CEO, who has carried out a complete pipeline and long-term review and has substantially outlined all the long-term boat drivers. For this reason, the fact that he can sell the company so quickly would surprise me a little.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/seagen-cosa-fa-la-biotech-su-cui-punta-pfizer/ on Tue, 28 Feb 2023 09:39:21 +0000.