AbbVie announced it will acquire Massachusetts-based ADC specialist ImmunoGen, in a deal led by ImmunoGen's flagship cancer therapy, Elahere.
Per the agreement, AbbVie will acquire all outstanding shares of ImmunoGen for $31.26 per share in cash — a transaction that values ImmunoGen at approximately $10.1 billion.
The deal will accelerate AbbVie's entry into the commercial market for ovarian cancer via ImmunoGen's first-in-class ADC, Elahere. Elahere was granted accelerated approval last November for FRα-positive ovarian, fallopian tube or primary peritoneal cancer. The drugmaker recently announced additional phase 3 data that supports its mission to make Elahere the new standard of care for patients with FRα-positive platinum-resistant ovarian cancer and plans to use those results to support an sBLA submission to the FDA in order to gain full approval.
The acquisition also gives AbbVie access to ImmunoGen's follow-on pipeline of promising next-generation ADCs, offering potentially transformative programs across multiple different solid tumors and hematologic malignancies.
M&A in the ADC space are on the rise, with the most notable being Pfizer's $43 billion acquisition of Seagen — also the largest biopharma deal of the year. Outside the ADC arena, 2023's biggest ticket deals were Amgen's $27.8 billion acquisition of Horizon in October and Merck's $10.8 billion buy of Prometheus Biosciences in June.
