Business Concentrates BIOLOGICS
Big pharma pursues next generation of antibodies AbbVie and other big firms pay small ones to access new technologies Seeing monoclonal antibodies rank among the top-selling pharmaceuticals, major drug companies are investing in the next generation of engineered antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). Leading the way is AbbVie, which had $14 billion in sales last year of the top-selling antibody, Humira, but faces looming patent expirations on the anti-inflammatory drug. AbbVie will pay $5.8 billion in cash and stock to acquire Stemcentrx, an eight-yearold company that has five oncology agents in clinical trials. The most advanced candidate is Rova-T, a rovalpituzumab tesirine ADC in Phase III trials against small cell lung cancer. AbbVie could pay Stemcentrx shareholders another $4 billion in milestone payments. At the same time, AbbVie will pay $40 million up front and up to $645 million in mile-
46% Drop in Sarepta Therapeutics’ share price on April 26, after an FDA advisory committee narrowly voted against recommending approval for eteplirsen, Sarepta’s drug for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The committee said the rare disease drug did not show substantial evidence of efficacy. FDA, which usually follows the advisory committee’s decision, is set to rule on the drug on May 26.
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C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | MAY 2, 2016
AbbVie researchers will collaborate on antibodies with new partners. With only a handful approved, ADCs and engineered or bispecific antibodies are niche products. But 50 or more of each are in development, and annual market growth could reach 40%, according to the market research firm Roots Analysis. ADC sales, for example, are predicted to grow from about $1 billion today to $10 billion by 2025. “Monoclonals are very useful, but we are seeing more and more cases where we need extra punch or oomph, and that is where bispecifics and ADCs come in,” says David Poon, Zymeworks’ director of R&D alliances. “One of our lead compounds is a bispecific drug conjugate, so we are actually already thinking about combining different aspects of these next-generation platforms.”—ANN THAYER
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
Sanofi makes a bid for Medivation Attempting to bolster its oncology franchise, Sanofi has made an unsolicited offer worth $9.3 billion to acquire the cancer-focused biotech firm Medivation. Medivation’s one approved drug is Xtandi, an androgen receptor inhibitor approved in 2012 to treat prostate cancer. Last year, Medivation reaped $943 million in revenue related to Xtandi. In recent weeks, rumors had grown rampant that multiple companies—notably AstraZeneca and Amgen—were courting Medivation. Just days before Sanofi’s offer, Leerink stock analyst Geoffrey Porges predicted the winner would pay between $55.00 and $70.00 per share for Medivation—well above Sanofi’s $52.50-per-share bid. In a letter, Sanofi CEO Olivier Brandicourt says he made multiple overtures to his Medivation counterpart, David Hung, in the past month, all of which were rebuffed. According to the letter, the French pharma
firm decided to take its case public after not getting a response from an April 15 acquisition proposal. Since taking over as CEO a year ago, Brandicourt has been on a mission to reinvigorate Sanofi’s oncology business. “As we aim to further develop our capabilities in this important area, we believe that Medivation represents a very strong fit,” he wrote. Brandicourt will likely need to work harder—and pony up more cash—to win over Medivation. RBC Capital Markets analyst Simos Simeonidis told investors that the price tag is likely to rise given that Medivation is the rare independent, cancer-focused biotech company with an oral drug for a sizable patient population. Moreover, Medivation recently acquired the PARP inhibitor talazoparib from BioMarin Pharmaceutical, potentially providing a second healthy revenue stream for an acquirer.—LISA JARVIS
CREDIT: ABBVIE
BY THE NUMBERS
stones to help Argenx develop its preclinical cancer immunotherapy ARGX-115. The Dutch firm engineers the targeting, binding, and other features of antibodies created within the immune system of llamas. And AbbVie will spend another $30 million up front and up to $470 million more to work with CytomX Therapeutics, which designs ADCs that deliver cytotoxic payloads to tumor cells while avoiding healthy cells. An initial target will be the tumor antigen CD17. Meanwhile, GlaxoSmithKline is investing $36 million up front and up to $872 million in milestones to get Zymeworks’ technology for generating bispecific antibodies. And Takeda Pharmaceutical and Eli Lilly & Co. have struck agreements with Adimab, a developer of monoclonal and bispecific antibodies.
