ABBVIE will acquire Stemcentrx and its lead late-stage asset rovalpituzumab tesirine (Rova-T) currently in registrational trials for small cell lung cancer. The transaction is expected to close in second-quarter of this year.
Rova-T is a novel biomarker-specific therapy that is derived from cancer stem cells and targets delta-like protein 3 that is expressed in more than 80 percent of SCLC patient tumors and is not present in healthy tissue. Registrational trials for third-line small cell lung cancer are expected to complete enrollment by the end of 2016.
Rova-T is under investigation as a third-line treatment in SCLC, where there is no currently approved therapy. Rova-T has also been submitted to FDA for Breakthrough Therapy designation. Additional data on Rova-T, including overall survival data, will be presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting in June.
AbbVie will acquire Stemcentrx for approximately $5.8 billion in cash and stock. AbbVie will pay approximately $2.0 billion of the transaction value in cash and fund the remaining portion with stock. In addition, Stemcentrx investors are eligible to receive up to $4 billion in cash for additional, success-based milestone payments for the achievement of certain regulatory and clinical developments.
