According to the CEO, Pfizer will bring Seagen anti-cancer drugs to the world on a scale never seen before.

pfizer CEO Albert Burla said on Monday that the pharmaceutical giant will be able to deliver Seagen’s cancer treatment to the world “on a scale never seen before” with its $43 billion acquisition.

“We can add value to what Seagen brings,” Burla said in an interview with CNBC. “It’s more or less like when the mRNA was in our hands. With our scale, with our capabilities, it’s the same here.”

Seagen is a leading drug developer called antibody-drug conjugatesor ADCs, which are designed to kill cancer cells and keep healthy ones. ADCs use antibodies to deliver small molecule drugs directly to the tumor site, which can reduce side effects and provide greater efficacy. Seagen website.

Burla called ADC “one of the greatest technologies to fight cancer” and compared them to the successful mRNA or messenger RNA technology the company helped create with BioNTech for Covid-19 vaccines. mRNA technology is mainly used as a means of delivering instructions to cells. Covid vaccines use mRNA technology to make our immune system produce antibodies against the virus.

ADCs “are turbocharged guided missiles that attack cancer cells and can make a huge difference,” he said.

Seagen will expand Pfizer’s cancer treatment portfolio with four approved cancer treatments. total sales of nearly $2 billion. in 2022. Top-selling Seagen Adcetris, which treats cancer of the lymphatic system, brought in $839 million in sales last year alone. This is up 19% from the previous year, according to Seagen’s latest report. income statement.

Sale Padcheva drug for urinary tract cancer also rose 33% last year to $451 million, the company said.

“These medicines are on track for strong growth and important lifecycle programs are expected to drive further spread and growth,” Burla said in a conference call earlier Monday morning.

According to a Pfizer press release, Seagen expects to generate about $2.2 billion in revenue this year, up 12% from last year. Pfizer added that Seagen could contribute more than $10 billion in risk-adjusted sales by 2030, “with significant upside potential” after this year.

The deal comes as Pfizer braces for a decline in Covid-related sales this year after its vaccine and Paxlovid antiviral pills boosted 2022 revenue to a record $100 billion. This will help Pfizer focus on oncology, an area the company believes will be the industry’s fastest growing market.

Pfizer’s oncology division generated $12.1 billion in revenue last year. The company has 24 approved treatments in the division, including Ibrance for breast cancer, according to the announcement.

Pfizer expects to close the deal later this year or early 2024. The company also expects antitrust authorities to scrutinize the deal due to its size, but Burla said during an interview, “We think we have a clean case.”

“The environment is always difficult and we are preparing for it, but I do not expect problems,” he added.

According to World Health Organization. American Cancer Society expects the global burden of cancer to increase significantly by 2040, predicting new cases to rise to 27.5 million and cancer deaths to reach 16.3 million.

Burla emphasized during an interview that the impact of cancer goes far beyond the patients themselves: “If not patients, they will be affected as a husband or wife, they will be affected by a daughter or a son.”

He added: “We can do great things with this technology in our hands.”