Dr. Timos Papagatsias’ Post

Gene&Cell Therapy >> Breaking: AbbVie to acquire ImmunoGen for $10B in banner year for ADCs: AbbVie plans to acquire ImmunoGen for $10.1 billion, the companies said Thursday morning, in a deal that would expand the Big Pharma’s presence in the oncology field and mark an exit for the 42-year-old Boston biotech. The Chicago-area company will pay $31.26 per share in cash to get its hands on ImmunoGen’s oncology pipeline, which includes Elahere, the antibody-drug conjugate that’s approved for certain ovarian cancers. It’s the third-largest biopharma M&A deal of the year after Pfizer’s proposed $43 billion acquisition of ADC pioneer Seagen and Merck’s $10.8 billion buyout of immunology biotech Prometheus Biosciences. The move also marks yet another large deal in the ADC landscape — a hot niche of oncology drug R&D that seeks to make more powerful and targeted chemotherapies. The market has exploded with the success of Seagen, Daiichi Sankyo and other drugmakers. Merck recently bet $4 billion upfront on an ADC deal. Bristol Myers and Eli Lilly have announced they’re buying assets, and GSK, among others, is lining up pacts with other biotechs working on such treatments. Mark Enyedy ImmunoGen secured an accelerated nod for Elahere a year ago, and analysts have high expectations for the ADC, which almost didn’t make it after a failure in 2019 led to layoffs. TD Cowen last month estimated peak sales at about $2 billion, and AbbVie highlighted the “multi-billion-dollar” potential of the asset, which succeeded in a confirmatory study in May, in Thursday’s news release. ImmunoGen CEO Mark Enyedy pointed to the pharma giant’s global commercial, clinical and regulatory chops, noting “AbbVie is the right company to accelerate geographic and label expansion and realize the full potential” of Elahere. Shares of ImmunoGen $IMGN skyrocketed 81% before Thursday’s opening bell. AbbVie’s shares $ABBV were down less than 0.5% in premarket trading. Investors reacted warmly to other ADC biotechs, with Mersana $MRSN and ADC Therapeutics $ADCT up about 10%. Everybody wants an ADC AbbVie’s deal is somewhat of a surprise. CEO Rick Gonzalez recently told analysts the drugmaker had “everything that we need” in the area of ADCs, referring to its in-house programs. He had hinted that AbbVie’s business development team was more focused on next-gen CAR-T technology and immunology assets that could complement other treatments. The announcement comes a day after AbbVie said it would explore accelerated approval for its own ADC, telisotuzumab-vedotin, in certain non-small cell lung cancers. Earlier in the year, it had axed a few other ADCs in its pipeline. Beyond Elahere, AbbVie will also get a Phase II ADC called pivekimab sunirine, which targets CD123 for patients with blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm, a rare blood cancer. The biotech… #lucidquest #genetherapy #celltherapy