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from Pfizer (New York Stock Exchange: PFE) Seagen acquisition (NASDAQ: SGEN), announced in March, is expected to complement the pharmaceutical giant’s current portfolio of cancer therapies.
Seagen is focusing on antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), a technology that the company says can “harness the power of antibody selection to deliver small molecule drugs to the tumor.
The biotech has three commercialized ADCs: Adcetris (brentuximab vedotin), Padcev (enfortumab vedotin), and Tivdak (tisotumab vedotin). They are approved for various types of cancer.
In addition, it markets a non-ADC, Tukysa (tucatinib), which is approved for breast and colorectal cancer.
On March 13, Pfizer (PFE) said it would acquire Seagen for $43 billion. If the deal goes through, it would be the largest in the pharmaceutical sector since AbbVie (ABBV) paid $63 billion in 2019 for Allergan.
Despite the high price of Pfizer (PFE), the payoff in the future is expected to be huge. In a recent report, data and analytics company GlobalData said Pfizer’s total cumulative revenue (PFE) from Seagen (SGEN) products is projected to reach $36 billion by 2028.
The acquisition comes at a critical time for Pfizer (PFE) as it grapples with declining revenue from its COVID-19 vaccine and Paxlovid antiviral, two products that have seen significant revenue growth in recent years.
In its fourth-quarter and full-year 2022 earnings report released in January, Pfizer (PFE) said that Paxlovid generated ~$19 billion in sales for the year. However, he warned that by 2023, that number would drop 58% to $8 billion.
The good news for Pfizer (PFE) is that GlobalData sees the acquisition of Seagen (SGEN) as a good option. “What’s most impressive…is Seagen’s (SGEN) ability to develop a wide range of monoclonal antibodies, targeting different types of cancer,” says Israel Stern, GlobalData oncology and hematology analyst. “This capability will now be enhanced by leveraging Pfizer’s protein engineering (PFE) capabilities.”
Stern noted that Seagen’s four currently marketed therapies (SGENs) are expected to have $1 billion in revenue over the next five years. Adcetris, the best-selling biotech drug, is approved for several types of lymphoma. GlobalData projects that it will become a billion-dollar drug by 2024.
Developed with Astellas Pharma (OTCPK:ALPMF)(OTCPK:ALPMY) for urothelial cancer, Padcev is expected to overtake Adcetris as its best-selling drug by 2024. added stern.
Padcev could have additional use as it is currently undergoing priority review by the US FDA in combination with Keytruda (pembrolizumab) for urothelial cancer.
of Seagen (SGEN) pipeline it is also promising. In addition to pursuing additional indications for its marketed products, it has two Phase 2 ADCs, disitamab vedotin and ladiratuzumab vedotin. The former is under investigation for HER2-expressing urothelial cancer, while the latter for triple-negative breast cancer and solid tumors.
