Due diligence plays a significant role in M&A transactions, but the eventual return on investments don’t always add up to the purchase price. While some companies such as Abbvie Inc. and Bristol Myers Squibb Co. – as shown in part one of this three-part series – have succeeded in acquiring products able to surpass M&A sticker prices, the vast majority of deals analyzed by BioWorld showed that most buyers remain significantly in the red.
Everest Medicines Ltd. has inked an agreement with Gilead Sciences Inc. to pass the latter’s subsidiary, Immunomedics Inc., exclusive rights to develop and commercialize Trodelvy (sacituzumab govitecan) in greater China, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Mongolia.
Everest Medicines Ltd. has inked an agreement with Gilead Sciences Inc. to pass the latter’s subsidiary, Immunomedics Inc., exclusive rights to develop and commercialize Trodelvy (sacituzumab govitecan) in greater China, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Mongolia. Everest stands to receive up to $455 million in total consideration, including $280 million up front and up to $175 million in potential milestone payments.
Usama Malik, Immunomedics Inc.’s former chief financial officer, and his former partner, Lauren Wood, face SEC charges related to insider trading in Immunomedics’ stock.
Gilead Sciences Inc.’s recent decision to acquire Immunomedics Inc. looks even smarter now in light of the full data in a phase III study of Trodelvy (sacituzumab govitecan-hziy) released at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) over the weekend.
Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are making a comeback. After a relatively slow start with Adcetris (brentuximab vedotin, Seattle Genetics Inc.) and Kadcyla (ado-trastuzumab emtansine, Roche Holding AG) approved by the FDA in 2011 and 2013, respectively, the regulatory activity has swelled with four FDA approvals over the last nine months.
In the company’s largest acquisition and potentially the fifth biggest biotech M&A ever, Gilead Sciences Inc. will acquire Immunomedics Inc. for $21 billion in a move that substantially transforms Gilead’s oncology portfolio.
With accelerated approval in hand for Trodelvy (sacituzumab govitecan-hziy) to treat metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC), Immunomedics Inc. is looking ahead to data related to the next indication for the antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) – urothelial tumors – “in the near future,” Chairman Behzad Aghazadeh told investors during a conference call.
Immunomedics Inc. gained accelerated FDA clearance for Trodelvy (sacituzumab govitecan-hziy) to treat patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) who have undergone at least two prior therapies. It’s the first antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) given the go-ahead specifically in relapsed/refractory TNBC and the first anti-Trop-2 ADC bound for the market. Trodelvy, which was granted breakthrough therapy designation and priority review, moved along faster thanks to the objective response rate (ORR) and duration of response (DoR) turned up by Morris Plains, N.J.-based Immunomedics in a single-arm, multicenter phase II study. Continued approval may be contingent on verifying clinical benefit in the confirmatory phase III experiment called Ascent, recently halted by the independent data safety monitoring committee due to compelling evidence of efficacy across multiple endpoints.
DUBLIN – Immunomedics Inc. is stopping the phase III Ascent trial of its antibody-drug conjugate, sacituzumab govitecan, in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) on the unanimous recommendation of the study’s independent data safety monitoring committee, after a scheduled look at the study data uncovered what the company called “compelling efficacy.”
