HQ Team
November 30, 2023: AbbVie Inc., operating in therapeutic areas such as immunology, oncology, neuroscience, and eye care, announced a pact to acquire ImmunoGen, Inc., for $10.1 billion.
The transaction is expected to close in the middle of 2024 and AbbVie will acquire all outstanding shares of Immunogen for $31.26 a share in cash, according to a statement.
The agreement will make available Immunogen’s flagship cancer therapy Elahere, an antibody-drug conjugate approved for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, and step up AbbVie’s commercial and clinical presence in the solid tumour segment.
“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 Richard A. Gonzalez, chairman and chief executive officer, AbbVie.
Gynaecological cancers
ImmunoGen’s oncology portfolio has the potential to help drive long-term revenue growth for AbbVie’s oncology franchise, according to the AbbVie statement.
Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynaecological cancers in the US. Elahere is the first targeted medicine to show meaningful survival benefits in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.
‘Platinum resistant’ ovarian cancer was historically defined as disease recurrence within six months of completion of first-line platinum-based chemotherapy, although this is now more broadly applied to also include patients progressing within six months after multiple lines of chemotherapy.
“As a fast-growing solid tumour therapy, Elahere provides AbbVie with a potential multi-billion-dollar on-market medicine with expansion opportunities in earlier lines of therapy and larger segments of the ovarian cancer market,” according to the statement.
Positive trial results
Mark Enyedy, president and chief executive officer, ImmunoGen said: “With global commercial infrastructure and deep clinical and regulatory expertise, AbbVie is the right company to accelerate geographic and label expansion, and realize the full potential of Elahere as the first and only,” antibody-drug conjugate approved in ovarian cancer.
Elahere received US Food and Drug Administration’s accelerated approval in 2022 for the treatment of adult patients with, platinum-resistant epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer, who have received one to three prior systemic treatment regimens.
Positive phase III results from a trial will support a Marketing Authorization Application to the European Union and a supplemental Biologic License Application submission to the USFDA, to gain full approval.
Ongoing clinical development programs are underway to expand into earlier lines of therapy and enter other large patient segments of the ovarian market over the next 5-10 years.
AbbVie is evaluating more than 20 investigational medicines in over 300 clinical trials across some of the world’s most widespread and debilitating cancers.
