For 43 billion US dollars: Pfizer takes over US cancer specialists

For $43 billion
Pfizer takes over US cancer specialists

The US pharmaceutical company Pfizer is strengthening its oncology portfolio with the acquisition of the biotech company Seagan. Pfizer wants to complete the purchase at the end of 2023 or beginning of 2024 – but the approval of the authorities is still missing.

Pfizer is using its billions in revenue from the corona pandemic and is planning one of the largest takeovers in the pharmaceutical industry in years. Pfizer wants to buy the biotech company Seagen for around 43 billion dollars, as the US drug manufacturer announced. Pfizer could thus significantly strengthen its range of cancer drugs.

Pfizer 37.08

“Oncology continues to be the largest growth driver in global medicine, and this acquisition will strengthen Pfizer’s position in this important area,” said CEO Albert Bourla. Seagen shareholders are expected to receive $229 a share, a premium of nearly a third to Friday’s closing price. It would be Pfizer’s largest acquisition since its $67 billion takeover of pharmaceutical company Wyeth in 2009.

In the pharmaceutical industry, the takeover of the biotech company Celgene by Bristol-Myers Squibb for 74 billion dollars, the purchase of the Botox manufacturer Allergan by AbbVie for 63 billion dollars and that of Alexion by Astrazeneca for 39 billion dollars are among the largest in recent years deal. The industry has been in a ceaseless concentration process for years. As many patents expire and research and development costs rise, more and more companies are joining forces.

A major takeover by Pfizer had already been expected given the company’s billions in the pandemic with its Corona tablet Paxlovid and vaccine Comirnaty developed with Biontech. But the Corona boom is over for the time being and Pfizer is preparing for a slump in sales after the record sales of 2022. With the purchase of Seagen, the group can now secure four approved cancer therapies with total sales of almost two billion dollars last year. By 2030, Pfizer expects Seagen’s “risk-adjusted” sales to exceed $10 billion.

Completion of the acquisition by early 2024 at the latest

The Washington-based biotech company is one of the pioneers in the field of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), which aim to destroy cancer cells while avoiding damage to healthy tissue. This therapy is said to be better tolerated than chemotherapy. Pharmaceutical companies such as the British Astrazeneca and the Japanese Daiichi Sankyo with their breast cancer drug Enhertu therefore rely on this technology.

Pfizer’s portfolio of cancer therapies currently includes 24 approved drugs, including breast cancer drug Ibrance. In 2022, they brought the group sales of a good twelve billion dollars. Seagen is said to have been targeted by the US pharmaceutical company Merck & Co last year.

The talks, which are said to have been at an advanced stage, did not lead to a conclusion due to concerns about a strict antitrust review. Wells Fargo analyst Mohit Bansal said Pfizer’s acquisition should not raise any major antitrust issues because the companies would not have much overlap in their products. Pfizer expects the acquisition to be completed by early 2024 at the latest.

source site-32