AbbVie to acquire Stemcentrx for $5.8 billion; posts strong 1st-qtr results

28 April 2016

US biopharma major AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) said today that it will acquire Stemcentrx and its lead late-stage asset rovalpituzumab tesirine (Rova-T) currently in registrational trials for small cell lung cancer (SCLC).

Rova-T is a novel biomarker-specific therapy that is derived from cancer stem cells and targets delta-like protein 3 (DLL3) that is expressed in more than 80% of SCLC patient tumors and is not present in healthy tissue. Registrational trials for third-line small cell lung cancer are expected to complete enrollment by the end of 2016.

Transaction terms

AbbVie will acquire Stemcentrx for around $5.8 billion in cash and stock. AbbVie will pay approximately $2.0 billion of the transaction value in cash and fund the remaining portion with stock. In addition, Stemcentrx investors are eligible to receive up to $4 billion in cash for additional, success-based milestone payments for the achievement of certain regulatory and clinical developments.

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