Takeover in ADC space: Abbvie snags ImmunoGen

AbbVie has become the latest big pharma company to target the hot antibody-drug conjugate market, acquiring ImmunoGen and its Elahere ADC for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer with the announcement of a US$10.1 billion deal.Under the terms of the agreement, AbbVie will acquire all of the outstanding shares of ImmunoGen for US$31.26 per share. The boards of directors of both AbbVie and ImmunoGen have approved the acquisition, which is expected to close in mid-2024. The deal values the biotech’s shares at a 95% premium.?The deal will give AbbVie access to Elahere (mirvetuximab soravtansine-gynx), which targets the alpha folate receptor and received accelerated approval from the FDA last year, as well as ImmunoGen’s follow-on ADC pipeline. ImmunoGen currently has several ADCs in development for the treatment of solid tumours, acute myeloid leukaemia and blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm, among others.Elahere was granted accelerated approval by the FDA in November 2022 and has since become a major moneymaker for ImmunoGen. In the third quarter of 2023, the treatment generated $105m in sales. The company had total revenues of more than $113m for the quarter, up from just $15m in the same period last year.?Other big names have also jumped on the ADC bandwagon.? AbbVie’s deal with ImmunoGen comes amid a flurry of activity in the ADC space. One of the most significant deals of the year, Pfizer’s expected $43 billion acquisition of Seagen, has been cleared by antitrust regulators and is moving forward. Last month, Merck paid $4 billion for Daiichi Sankyo’s ADCs in solid tumours, while Eli Lilly acquired French biopharma Mablink for an undisclosed price to gain access to its technology. GSK also struck a licensing deal last month with China’s Hansoh Pharma for its ADC, which is currently in phase I. And also ADC companies in Germany are participating: Emergence Thx was bought by Eli Lilly for an undisclosed sum, which can be recalculated by the price Emergence’s former shareholder, listed Heidelberg Pharma, had to announce: around €600m. Heidelberg Pharma, itself a developer of ADC with a proprietary payload, had closed a deal with Chinese Huadong Pharma worth up to US$930m. Heating is turned up in the ADC space.

More about the ADC space in Europe in the EBM Magazine, 4/23.