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Pfizer not keen on bid as Merck courted
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PFIZER dampened investors’ expectations of a renewed bid for AstraZeneca yesterday by signing a major cancer drug deal with Germany’s Merck KGaA, reducing the US firm’s need for Astra’s products.
Merck will receive an upfront payment of US$850 million from the US drugmaker for sharing rights to develop its experimental immunotherapy drug with Pfizer. It is also eligible for up to US$2 billion in payments based on the medicine’s future success.
Merck’s MSB0010718C is part of a class of drugs known as anti-PD-L1 therapies, which work by blocking a tumor’s ability to evade the immune system’s defense.
The exclusive nature of the deal means Pfizer and Merck cannot collaborate with any other drugmaker in the PD-L1 or related PD-1 area, unless they jointly agree to do so.
Such immune-boosting medicines represent the hottest area of cancer research and are also a major focus for AstraZeneca, which has a rival anti-PD-L1 product in development called MEDI4736.
Winning access to AstraZeneca’s cancer pipeline has been viewed as a major goal for Pfizer, which was unsuccessful with a US$118 billion bid for the British group in May. It has a chance to renew its approach under British takeover rules from November 26.
Pfizer said immuno-oncology was “a top priority” for the firm but a spokeswoman said British rules did not allow it to make any comment on its intentions toward AstraZeneca.
As a result of the cost of the deal, Pfizer said it now expected its 2014 reported diluted earnings per share to be between US$1.40 and US$1.49, compared with US$1.50-1.59 indicated previously.
The drugmaker is paying a high price for a medicine that has yet to prove itself in full-scale clinical tests, reflecting intense competition among companies wanting to do a deal, according to Belen Garijo, who will head Merck’s healthcare business from next year.
Merck said in September that it was in talks about a partnership agreement for the drug, which is being investigated as a treatment for lung and ovarian cancer, as well as the rare skin cancer Merkel cell carcinoma.
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