AbbVie will pay $31.26 per share in cash for ImmunoGen, a 95% premium over the biotech’s closing price of $16.06 the day before. The price tag for the whole company: $10.1 billion.
What AbbVie wants is Elahere. The drug is a first-in-class antibody-drug conjugate, or ADC, approved for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, and it won accelerated approval from the FDA in November 2022. AbbVie sees a potential multi-billion-dollar treatment in it, with room to move into earlier lines of therapy and larger segments of the ovarian cancer market.
Elahere’s numbers
Sales have been climbing. Elahere brought in $105.164 million in net product revenues in the third quarter, and that pushed ImmunoGen into its first profitable quarter ever, with net income of $30.748 million. Over the first nine months of 2023 the drug took in $212.079 million, though the company still carried a net loss of $163.921 million for the period.
GlobalData had projected in May that Elahere would reach peak annual sales of $615 million by 2029.
Confirmatory Phase 3 results from the MIRASOL trial will back two filings: a supplemental Biologic License Application to the FDA for full approval, and a Marketing Authorization Application in the European Union.
The rest of the pipeline
Two other assets come with the deal. IMGN-151 is a Phase 1 anti-FRα ADC for ovarian cancer. Pivekimab sunirine, in Phase 2, targets blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm, a rare blood cancer, and has FDA breakthrough therapy designation for relapsed or refractory disease.
“The acquisition of ImmunoGen demonstrates our commitment to deliver on our long-term growth strategy and enables AbbVie to further diversify our oncology pipeline across solid tumors and hematologic malignancies,” said AbbVie chairman and CEO Richard A. Gonzalez. ImmunoGen CEO Mark Enyedy called AbbVie the right company to speed expansion of Elahere’s geographic reach and label, and described the deal as the end point of a 40-year effort on ADCs.
Analyst view
William Blair analyst Andy T. Hsieh wrote that the deal “validates the clinical and commercial performance of Elahere.” He cut the firm’s rating on ImmunoGen to Market Perform, because he does not expect a rival bid.
Why AbbVie is shopping
Immunology has been a soft spot. AbbVie reported worldwide net revenue down 6% in the third quarter, and global net revenue from immunology products dropped 11.3%, to $6.7 billion. Oncology was its third-largest source of product revenue in the quarter, at $1.512 billion from Imbruvica, Venclexta and Epkinly.
It has been busy elsewhere. A month earlier it agreed to buy Mitokinin, a neurodegenerative disease specialist, paying shareholders $110 million at closing, with up to $545 million more tied to milestones. Weeks before that, AbbVie ended its license and collaboration agreement with Shanghai-based I-Mab over CD47 antibodies.
Rivals are crowding into ADCs too. Eli Lilly bought Mablink Bioscience and Emergence Therapeutics this year. Eisai agreed in May to pay up to $2 billion to Bliss Biopharmaceutical for BB-1701.
Both boards have approved the deal. It still needs ImmunoGen shareholders and regulators to sign off, and is expected to close in the middle of 2024. AbbVie expects it to add to diluted earnings per share beginning in 2027.
Sources
- AbbVie to acquire ADC manufacturer ImmunoGen for $10.1B in oncology play
- AbbVie to Acquire ImmunoGen for $10.1B, Expanding Cancer Franchise
