Under the terms, Pfizer would pay $229 per share in cash, the drugmaker said Monday. The companies expect the deal to close late this year or early next year.
The $43 billion total includes debt, a Pfizer spokeswoman said. It is likely to come under scrutiny from antitrust regulators, who have stepped up their reviews of health care and other deals.
Seagen, who is based outside Seattle, helped pioneer a class of drugs known as antibody-drug conjugates that can focus on tumors to hit them with a toxic agent.
New York-based Pfizer has been looking for acquisitions to help offset expected lost sales as some top-selling drugs lose patent protection in the next few years.
“Oncology continues to be the primary growth driver for global medicine, and this acquisition will strengthen Pfizer’s position in this important space and contribute significantly to the achievement of Pfizer’s short- and long-term financial goals.” , said general manager Albert Bourla.
Seagen, which forecasts $2.2 billion in revenue this year, could bring Pfizer $10 billion in revenue by 2030, Pfizer said.
“The proposed combination with Pfizer is the right next step for Seagen in pursuing its strategy,” Seagen Chief Executive David Epstein said.
Seagen has caught the attention of Pfizer and other big drugmakers because of its new cancer drugs, known as antibody-drug conjugates or ADCs, which are able to target tumors and then hit them with an agent. toxic.
Merck & Co. had discussed buying Seagen last year, but the companies couldn’t agree on a price, The Wall Street Journal reported. Pfizer’s talks with Seagen advanced quickly after the Journal reported last month that the companies had started talking.
ADCs have begun to be approved for some common cancers such as the breast, and drugmakers have explored their deployment in combination with other anticancer agents, including immunotherapies that are among the world’s top-selling drugs.
Seagen has more than nine studies underway to test ADCs with immunotherapies.
ADCs will account for $31 billion of a $375 billion market in 2028, according to estimates by drug market research firm Evaluate.
Seagen sells four products, three of which include ADCs. They include Padcev, which was approved in 2019 for the treatment of patients with bladder cancer failing other drugs.
The US Food and Drug Administration is reviewing a regimen combining Padcev with Merck’s Keytruda immunotherapy for the treatment of advanced bladder cancer in patients who are not eligible for chemotherapy. Padcev could total $2.8 billion in sales in 2028, according to analysts polled by FactSet.
Seagen, which was previously known as Seattle Genetics, had become the target of a deal after the chief executive and chairman resigned last year as the company investigated a domestic abuse allegation. The company said he denied the allegations and told her he was in the process of getting a divorce.
Mr Epstein took over as head of Seagen in November, after talks with Merck ended, and was paving an independent path for the company.
Write to Jared S. Hopkins at jared.hopkins@wsj.com and Jonathan D. Rockoff at Jonathan.Rockoff@wsj.com
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