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AbbVie RA deal: best in class – but years behind

 
• By Eleanor Malone

The $840m deal AbbVie signed on 23 September with Ablynx, the Belgian "nanobody" specialist, comes after it agreed to pay up to $1.35bn to Galapagos for a similar type of deal in the same therapeutic space last year, and up to $480m to Biotest the year before. The stakes are high, and for good reason: AbbVie currently sells one of the best-selling medicines of all time, the anti-TNF biologic Humira (adalimumab; 2012 sales $9.3bn). To future-proof its market-leading position in the autoimmune space it needs to cover several bases.

The $840m deal AbbVie signed on 23 September with Ablynx, the Belgian "nanobody" specialist, comes after it agreed to pay up to $1.35bn to Galapagos for a similar type of deal in the same therapeutic space last year, and up to $480m to Biotest the year before. The stakes are high, and for good reason: AbbVie currently sells one of the best-selling medicines of all time, the anti-TNF biologic Humira (adalimumab; 2012 sales $9.3bn). To future-proof its market-leading position in the autoimmune space it needs to cover several bases.

While Humira is expected to be threatened first of all within the next few years by oral therapies like Pfizer's...

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