Pfizer’s plan to acquire Seagen for $43 billion has cleared the necessary regulatory hurdles, the pharma titan announced Tuesday. The deal will close on Thursday.
Seagen is the largest biotech company in the Seattle area and an anchor for the biopharma industry in the Pacific Northwest. The 3,300-person company announced plans last year to build a 270,000 square 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 terms of the acquisition put Seagen’s value at approximately $229 per share.
The company had been in merger-and-acquisition negotiations with multiple potential buyers before the agreement with Pfizer came together.
To win Federal Trade Commission approval for the deal, Pfizer is giving up its royalties from the U.S. sales of a cancer-treatment drug called Bavencio. Those royalties will go to the American Association for Cancer Research in support of its mission.
Pfizer said Tuesday it will restructure its operations to incorporate Seagen. The company is creating an end-to-end business organization called the Pfizer Oncology Division that will include certain commercial oncology work and R&D operations from both companies. The division will be led by Pfizer’s Dr. Chris Boshoff.
When Pfizer announced the planned acquisition in March, company CEO Dr. Albert Bourla said it would maintain Seagen’s Seattle area and San Francisco locations, and “will try if possible to enhance their resources rather than taking them away.”
“We are not buying the golden eggs. We are acquiring a goose that is laying the golden eggs,” Bourla said on a call with investors.
Seagen has several offices globally and employs about 1,800 in the Seattle area. It is based in the city of Bothell, located north of Seattle.
Seagen was founded by Clay Siegall and H. Perry Fell, who served as CEO until Siegall took over in 2002. Siegall resigned from the company in May 2022 following domestic violence allegations and an arrest at his house after an incident involving his wife. He ultimately did not face charges.
