With AbbVie Inc.’s (NYSE: ABBV) surprise $87 billion bid for Allergan plc (NYSE: AGN) dominating headlines this week, you’d be forgiven for forgetting Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) just bought Array BioPharma (NASDAQ: ARRY) for $11.4 billion only days before. It’s the pharmaceutical giant’s biggest deal of the year thus far in announced dollar volume, and only second behind the aforementioned transaction. The terms included $48 per share in cash, with 237,500,000 shares outstanding, representing a 62% premium to ARRY’s closing price on Friday, June 13.
Array BioPharma is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization targeted small molecule drugs. Array reported a trailing 12-month revenue of nearly $194 million. The company was quiet on the transaction front as a buyer, reporting only a 2015 deal with Novartis Pharma AG (SIX: NOVN). It bought the global rights to encorafenib (LGX818) from Novartis, an innovative late-stage oncology product that was in Phase 3 of development at the time.
However, it seems Array’s deal with Novartis led to Pfizer’s takeover. Pfizer wanted access to Array’s product pipeline, which now included Braftovi (encorafenib) and Mektovi (binimetinib) for the treatment of two mutant unresectable or metastatic melanoma. The combination is being investigated in more than 30 clinical trials across several solid tumor indications, including a Phase 3 trial. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2019.
