Pfizer spends $11.4B to buy Array BioPharma for its cancer drug chemistry - STAT

Pfizer said Monday morning that it will spend $11.4 billion in cash to purchase Array BioPharma, a Boulder, Colo.-based biotech known not only for developing its own medicines but as being a top choice among biotechnology firms that need to synthesize new drugs. Pfizer said it will keep Array open as a new research site for the company.

The deal values Array at $48 in cash per share. Array shares rose 60% to $47.40 in pre-market trading; Pfizer shares dipped 0.1% to $47.20.

Array sells a combination of two drugs, Braftovi and Mektovi, that were approved last June to treat metastatic melanoma. The medicines could have a much greater potential, Pfizer said, in colon cancer, where they are also being tested, and where the proteins the drugs target are thought to play a role. Pfizer’s chief executive, Albert Bourla, said in a press release that the acquisition “sets the stage to create a potentially industry-leading franchise for colorectal cancer alongside Pfizer’s existing expertise in breast and prostate cancers.”

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But Array has also played a background role in inventing medicines that are principally thought of as belonging to other companies. The company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission list 13 drugs being developed by other companies that were invented by Array, including both of the cancer drugs credited to Loxo Oncology, which was purchased by Eli Lilly for $8 billion in January. Targeted cancer drugs have resulted in a string of pharmaceutical acquisitions worth more than $36 billion over the past 2 1/2 years.

“We are very excited by Array’s impressive track record of successfully discovering and developing innovative small-molecules and targeted cancer therapies,” said Dr. Mikael Dolsten, Pfizer’s chief scientific officer.

Targeted cancer drugs such as the ones that Array develops have been a major part of Pfizer’s research over the past decade. Nine such medicines have reached the market since 2009, according to Bernard Munos, the principal at pharma consultancy InnoThink, including Xalkori, a pathbreaking lung cancer drug, and Ibrance, the company’s breast cancer drug, which generated $4.1 billion in revenue last year. Pfizer’s $14 billion acquisition of Medivation in 2016 also focused on this area, adding the prostate cancer drug Xtandi, which generated $699 million in alliance revenue for Pfizer last year.

“We are incredibly proud that Pfizer has recognized the value Array has brought to patients and our remarkable legacy discovering and advancing molecules with great potential to impact and extend the lives of patients in critical need,” Ron Squarer, Array’s chief executive officer, said in the press release announcing the deal.

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https://www.statnews.com/2019/06/17/pfizer-buys-array-biopharma-for-its-cancer-drug-chemistry/

2019-06-17 12:39:27Z
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