Monday, February 27, 2023

So... Pfizer May ALSO Be Talking To Seagen About A ~$40 Billion Deal?


That (at least) is a rumor out of this morning's Wall Street Journal.

Of course, Merck was rumored last summer to be working on just the same deal for the novel oncology R&D shop out on the Northwest Coast. We shall see. Here's a bit of the reporting -- on the reporting of a rumor piece:

. . .Pfizer is in early-stage talks to acquire cancer drugmaker Seagen Inc in what could be a multi-billion dollar deal, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Seagen had a market capitalization of roughly $30 billion, as of Friday's close. . . .

Seagen's shares have fallen nearly 10% since July, when the deal talks with Merck were first reported. They rose 12.3% to $182 in premarket trading on Monday.

Pfizer declined to comment on the WSJ report, while Seagen did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

"A Pfizer/Seagen combination will invite less scrutiny from the FTC due to less overlap of their products when compared to a Merck/Seagen deal," said Zhiqiang Shu, analyst at Berenberg Capital Markets. . . .

Pfizer has said it expects to lose $17 billion in annual sales between 2025 and 2030 due to patent expirations for top drugs, and sales of its COVID-19 products have begun to decline after they contributed to an unprecedented surge in revenue. . . .


Well -- as ever, to get Seagen, Pfizer will likely need to pay over $40 billion -- and that is where Merck and Seagen were last rumored to be over $10 billion apart, on price.

So. . . I for one don't expect this to happen too terribly soon. Onward, grinning -- sunny here now.

नमस्ते

No comments: