Pfizer wins regulatory approval for its $43B acquisition of Seattle-area biotech big Seagen

Pfizer’s plan to amass Seagen for $43 billion has cleared the required regulatory hurdles, the pharma titan introduced Tuesday. The deal will shut on Thursday.

Seagen is the most important biotech firm within the Seattle space and an anchor for the biopharma business within the Pacific Northwest. The three,300-person firm introduced plans final yr to construct a 270,000 sq. foot manufacturing facility north of Seattle.

Seagen launched as Seattle Genetics in 1998. It went public in 2001, pricing its IPO at $7 per share. The phrases of the acquisition put Seagen’s worth at roughly $229 per share.

The corporate had been in merger-and-acquisition negotiations with a number of potential consumers earlier than the settlement with Pfizer got here collectively.

To win Federal Commerce Fee approval for the deal, Pfizer is giving up its royalties from the U.S. gross sales of a cancer-treatment drug referred to as Bavencio. These royalties will go to the American Affiliation for Most cancers Analysis in help of its mission.

Pfizer mentioned Tuesday it’ll restructure its operations to include Seagen. The corporate is creating an end-to-end enterprise group referred to as the Pfizer Oncology Division that may embrace sure business oncology work and R&D operations from each corporations. The division might be led by Pfizer’s Dr. Chris Boshoff.

When Pfizer introduced the deliberate acquisition in March, firm CEO Dr. Albert Bourla mentioned it might keep Seagen’s Seattle space and San Francisco areas, and “will strive if attainable to reinforce their assets fairly than taking them away.”

“We aren’t shopping for the golden eggs. We’re buying a goose that’s laying the golden eggs,” Bourla mentioned on a name with buyers.

Seagen has a number of workplaces globally and employs about 1,800 within the Seattle space. It’s primarily based within the metropolis of Bothell, positioned north of Seattle.

Seagen was based by Clay Siegall and H. Perry Fell, who served as CEO till Siegall took over in 2002. Siegall resigned from the corporate in Might 2022 following home violence allegations and an arrest at his home after an incident involving his spouse. He in the end didn’t face costs.