STAT+: AbbVie to buy Apogee Therapeutics in nearly $11B deal
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- AbbVie announced Monday it will acquire Apogee Therapeutics for $10.9 billion in cash, continuing a run of pharma companies scooping up biotechs.
- Apogee shareholders will receive $135.11 per share under the deal — a roughly 50% premium over the company's previous closing price.
- The Financial Times reported last week that the deal was in the works before Monday's formal announcement.
- Apogee's lead drug zumilokibart targets the IL-13 inflammatory cytokine and is in trials for atopic dermatitis and, in combination with another experimental medicine, asthma.
- Zumilokibart could be dosed as infrequently as two to four times per year after patients start treatment, a potential convenience advantage over existing therapies.
Why it matters: AbbVie's $10.9B bid at a roughly 50% share-price premium shows how aggressively big pharma is paying to refill immunology pipelines through acquisition. Apogee's zumilokibart targets the IL-13 cytokine with potential dosing of just two to four times a year — giving AbbVie a late-stage asset it did not build internally.
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