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.
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