Pfizer will bring Seagen’s cancer drugs to the world at a scale not seen before, CEO says

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on Monday said the pharmaceutical giant will have the opportunity to deliver Seagen’s cancer therapy to the world “at a scale that has not been seen before” with its $43 billion acquisition. 

“We are able to add value to what Seagen is bringing,” Bourla said in a CNBC interview. “It’s kind of a situation like when mRNA was in our hands. With our scale, with our capabilities, this is similar here.”

Seagen is a number one developer of drugs called antibody-drug conjugates, or ADCs, that are designed to kill cancer cells and spare healthy ones. ADCs use antibodies to deliver small molecule drugs on to a tumor site, which can reduce uncomfortable side effects and offer greater efficacy, in line with Seagen’s website. 

Bourla called ADCs “one in all the best technologies to battle cancer” and likened them to the successful mRNA, or messenger RNA, technology the corporate helped manufacture with BioNTech for Covid-19 vaccines. The mRNA technology is essentially used as a vehicle to deliver instructions to cells. In Covid vaccines, mRNA technology is used to trick our immune system into developing antibodies against the virus.  

ADCs “are turbo charge guided missiles which might be attacking the cancer cells and might make an enormous difference,” he said. 

Seagen will bulk up Pfizer’s cancer treatment portfolio, bringing 4 approved cancer therapies with combined sales of nearly $2 billion in 2022. Seagen’s top seller Adcetris, which treats lymph system cancers, brought in $839 million alone in sales last 12 months. That is a 19% increase over the prior 12 months, in line with Seagen’s latest earnings release. 

Sales of Padcev, a treatment for cancers of the urinary tract, also grew 33% last 12 months to $451 million, the corporate said.

“These medicines are on a powerful growth trajectory, with significant lifecycle programs anticipated to drive continued impact uptake and growth,” Bourla said on a conference call earlier Monday morning.

Seagen expects to generate about $2.2 billion in revenue this 12 months, representing 12% year-over-year growth, in line with a Pfizer press release. Pfizer added that Seagen could contribute greater than $10 billion in risk-adjusted sales by 2030, “with potential for significant growth” beyond that 12 months.

The deal comes as Pfizer prepares for a decline in Covid-related sales this 12 months, after its vaccine and antiviral pill Paxlovid drove its 2022 revenue to a record $100 billion. It is going to help Pfizer sharpen its concentrate on oncology, a field the corporate believes shall be the industry’s biggest growth market.

Pfizer’s oncology division raked in $12.1 billion in revenue last 12 months. The corporate has 24 approved treatments within the division, including breast cancer treatment Ibrance, in line with the discharge.

Pfizer expects to finish the transaction later this 12 months or in early 2024. The corporate also expects antitrust regulators to closely review the deal because of its size, but Bourla said throughout the interview “we expect we have now a clean case.” 

“The environment is all the time difficult and we’re preparing for it, but I do not expect issues,” he added.

Cancer accounted for nearly 10 million deaths in 2020, in line with the World Health Organization. The American Cancer Society expects the worldwide burden of cancer to grow significantly by 2040, forecasting recent cases to grow to 27.5 million and cancer deaths to hit 16.3 million

Bourla emphasized throughout the interview that cancer’s impact reaches far beyond the patients themselves: “If not patients, they shall be affected as husband or wife, they shall be affected by daughter or son.” 

He added: “We are able to make an enormous difference with this technology in our hands.”