Pfizer Inc. PFE -1.30% is in talks to acquire biotech company Seagen Inc., SGEN -0.51%, according to people familiar with the matter, the latest potential deal for a big pharmaceutical company aiming to create a promising class of targeted cancer therapies.
Talks are at an early stage and there is no guarantee an agreement will be reached, the people said. A number of hurdles would need to be overcome, including the possibility of rigorous antitrust scrutiny of any proposal. If there is a deal, it would be big: Seagen has a market value of about $30 billion and is expected to command a premium above that.
Seagen was in advanced talks last year to be acquired by Merck MRK -0.63% & Co., in a deal that would have been worth $40 billion or more, the Wall Street Journal reported at the time, but the two sides couldn’t Reach agreement . Pfizer was also involved with Seagen at the time, people familiar with the matter said.
After talks with Merck broke down last year, Seagen appointed David Epstein, a former executive at Novartis AG NVS -1.06% who was recently a partner at venture firm Flagship Pioneering, as chief executive.
A deal would help Pfizer, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies with sales of $100 billion last year, expand its range of cancer treatments to include a class of drugs that have shown promise to work with so-called immunotherapies against some of the most widespread tumors.
It could also help Pfizer offset $17 billion in sales that the company predicts could lose due to patent expirations by 2030. Pfizer has set a goal of adding $25 billion in revenue through business development efforts, including acquisitions, by the end of the decade. Seagen posted nearly $2 billion in sales last year.
Based in New York, Pfizer is cashless. The drugmaker has approximately $22.7 billion from sales of its Covid-19 vaccines, drugs and products.
Last year, Pfizer acquired sickle cell drugmaker Global Blood Therapeutics Inc. for more than $5 billion and the rest of Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holdings Co. for more than $10 billion.
Seagen of Bothell, Washington, pioneered the development of a class of cancer therapies known as antibody-drug conjugates, which act like a guided missile, targeting tumors with toxic agents.
The therapies have been approved for cancers such as Hodgkin’s and other lymphomas and have recently shown promise in combination with immunotherapy for other types of tumours, including a form of breast cancer.
The potential in breast cancer could be particularly attractive to Pfizer, which has a top-selling drug called Ibrance to treat the condition.
The Food and Drug Administration is currently reviewing whether to approve a combination of Seagen and Astellas Pharma Inc.’s Padcev antibody-drug conjugate and Merck’s Keytruda immunotherapy for the treatment of advanced bladder cancer.
Write to Jared S. Hopkins at [email protected] and to Jonathan D. Rockoff at [email protected]
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