BioCentury
ARTICLE | Finance

Private payday

How AbbVie found another pipeline in a product with Stemcentrx's Rova-T

May 2, 2016 7:00 AM UTC

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) is paying an eye-popping $5.8 billion up front and a potential $4 billion in milestones for privately held Stemcentrx Inc., but the pharma thinks the price is worth it to obtain another "pipeline in a product" like Imbruvica ibrutinib.

The driver of the deal is Stemcentrx's Rova-T rovalpituzumab tesirine. The antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targeting delta-like 3 (DLL3) is in a pivotal Phase II trial as third-line therapy for small cell lung cancer (SCLC), an indication for which there are no approved drugs. ...