Abbvie Inc.’s encore to its $10.1 billion buyout of antibody-drug conjugate specialist Immunogen Inc. took the form of another takeover – this time of Cerevel Therapeutics Inc. for $45 per share in cash, which puts the total equity value at about $8.7 billion and provides Abbvie with “one of the most attractive growth portfolios in the industry,” CEO Richard Gonzalez said.
Buying out Immunogen Inc. in a whopper cash deal valued at about $10.1 billion, Abbvie Inc. has major plans for an expanded label on the antibody-drug conjugate Elahere (mirvetuximab soravtansine-gynx), already approved for treating platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.
With U.S. drug prices a perennial issue, several lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans, are increasingly looking beyond biopharma to identify other “persons of interest” that may be complicit in the high list prices facing American patients.
Disrupting apoptosis is a mechanism that cancerous cells use to avoid being killed; this can be performed by overexpressing pro-survival factors, such as induced myeloid leukemia cell differentiation protein Mcl-1. Researchers from Abbvie Inc. have recently published preclinical data on a potent and selective Mcl-1 inhibitor, ABBV-467, for the treatment of hematologic cancers.
Researchers from Abbvie Inc. have reported on the discovery and optimization of a series of selective tyrosine kinase 2 (TYK2) inhibitors that led to the identification of ABBV-712 as the lead compound.
Carrying through on a policy it adopted a few months ago to crack down on potentially anticompetitive FDA Orange Book listings, the U.S. FTC put 10 drug companies on notice that it’s challenging several of their “improperly or inaccurately listed” patents through the FDA’s regulatory dispute process.
Instead of the two-step process that’s been the typical path for interchangeables in the U.S., Amgen Inc.’s Wezlana got a green light Oct. 31 from the FDA as both the first approved biosimilar and interchangeable to Johnson & Johnson’s inflammatory disease drug, Stelara (ustekinumab).
An Abbvie Inc. patent has disclosed thiazolo [5,4-b] pyridine compounds acting as mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma translocation protein 1 (MALT1) inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of activated B-cell like diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (ABC-DLBCL).
Current therapies based on immune checkpoint blockade are effective and offer a valid option for treatment, but many patients develop either primary or acquired resistance to treatment. Previous research has shown that the deletion of protein tyrosine phosphatases PTPN2 and PTPN1 results in an increase in the sensitization of tumor cells and the promotion of antitumor immunity.
Biopharma companies and industry advocates received the message the U.S. FTC intended to send when it broke new antitrust ground earlier this year in challenging Amgen Inc.’s $27.8 billion acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics plc. Now they’re uniting to send a message of their own – in the guise of an awareness campaign showing that the FTC’s new approach to M&A reviews and antitrust enforcement will undermine the ecosystem responsible for innovative and important therapies the world over.
