Update On Seagen -- Merck: Asking Price / Paying Price Disagreements... Over $10 Billion Apart?

Toward the end of last week, we saw this -- but were awaiting some more solid confirmation as to how big the price gap is.

It seems we are not likely to get that information, in the near term -- but my experienced hunch is that the parties are at least $10 billion apart, on a ~$40 billion deal. So. . . this may take a bit -- settle in, if it is to happen at all:

. . .[T]he company, formerly known as Seattle Genetics, [has become] one of the world’s most successful biotechs. In short order, it became an industry leader in antibody-drug conjugate research. Seagen has earned FDA approvals for three cancer treatments since 2019 after its first nod for Adcetris in 2011.

An acquisition would likely become the largest in the biopharma industry since AbbVie’s $63 billion buyout of Allergan in 2019. The same year, Bristol Myers Squibb snapped up Celgene for $74 billion.

But the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) would likely scrutinize a deal between the companies. The antitrust enforcement unit has been tasked by the Biden administration to curb monopolies and to specifically target the pharma industry to combat high drug prices. . . .

Over the last few months, as Merck and Seagen considered the move, one of the key factors at play in determining the value of Seagen was impending data from a trial of its bladder cancer drug Padcev in combination with Merck’s Keytruda. . . .

Now you know. Onward, grinning. . . ever grinning. . . these things do vibrate to their own rhythms in time.

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