Pfizer agrees to buy Seagen for USD 43 bn

NEW YORK: Pfizer has agreed to pay USD 43 billion for biotech Seagen and its pioneering class of targeted cancer drugs, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Under the terms, Pfizer would pay USD 229 a share in cash, the drugmaker said on Monday. The companies expect the deal, which includes debt, to close late this year or early next year.

However, it is likely to face scrutiny from antitrust regulators, who have stepped up their reviews of healthcare and other deals.

The agreement is an early sign that, despite the threat of close antitrust examinations and higher interest rates, big pharmaceutical companies are poised for heavy deal-making this year, WSJ said.

The drugmakers had in recent years backed off from what had been a torrid deal pace, after potential targets came to cost too much. Yet, they now need to inject new drugs--and their sales--into aging lineups, and price tags have dropped after some research failures and interest rates rose.
Also on Monday, French drugmaker Sanofi said it would buy Provention Bio, which sells diabetes treatment Tzield, in a deal valued at USD 2.9 billion, WSJ said.

Seagen, which is based outside Seattle, helped pioneer a class of drugs known as antibody drug conjugates, or ADCs, that can home in on tumours to strike them with a toxic agent.

The drugs could become one of the next big segments of the USD 375-billion worldwide cancer-drugs market, accounting for USD 31 billion in sales in 2028, drug-market-research firm Evaluate estimates.

According to WSJ, New York-based Pfizer has been looking for acquisitions to help it offset an expected sales loss of USD 17 billion by 2030 as some top-selling drugs like blood thinner Eliquis and breast-cancer drug Ibrance lose patent protection in the next several years.