Market Commentary

Seagen Stock Soars on Pfizer Rumors

Huzaifa Waseem
6 Feb 2024 · 1 minute read

Pfizer (PFE:US) is having discussions to acquire biotech company Seagen (SGEN:US), according to the Wall Street Journal. The report stated that a potential deal could be valued at over $30 billion, adding that talks are still at an early stage, with no guarantee that there will be a deal.

As a result, Seagen shares gained more than 13% on Monday, to push its market capitalization to over $33 billion. However, investors are likely to look at this front with a degree of skepticism after Seagen saw its stock surge in June last year on a Reuters report that Merck is in advanced talks to acquire it for over $40 billion.

The talks ultimately fell apart, with Bloomberg reporting that the companies couldn’t agree on valuation.

Wall Street analysts have been discussing for months the possibility of Pfizer doing a large M&A deal, given that its sales topped $100 billion last year. With Seagen, the pharma giant is looking to add to its lineup of cancer treatments.

Pfizer is looking to accelerate its sales growth as it starts at billions in lost sales due to patent expirations by 2020. The management said earlier, it is looking to add $25 billion in revenue by the end of the decade.

Congress members Josh Gottheimer and Ro Khanna were both buying and selling Seagen shares in 2022. On the other hand, the latter invested between $15,000 and $50,000 in Pfizer shares earlier this year, in addition to several smaller $1,000 - $15,000 trades.