AbbVie to Shell Out $8.7B to Purchase Cerevel

AbbVie has entered into an agreement to purchase Cerevel Therapeutics for $8.7 billion, as announced by the companies. This strategic deal aims to enhance AbbVie’s pipeline by integrating Cerevel’s seven neuroscience and psychiatric drug candidates currently under development across nine programs. These programs encompass various illnesses such as schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease (PD), and mood imbalances.

This is AbbVie’s second attempt in as many weeks to increase its pipeline size through acquisitions. The first occurred on November 30th, when Abbvie paid over $10 billion to acquire ImmunoGen. The acquisition was made to speed up Abbvie’s entrance into the commercial ovarian cancer market, which the buyer hoped would contribute future revenue growth to its oncology platform.

Since the FDA has authorized nine biosimilar copies of the active component adalimumb, AbbVie’s long-running multi-indication sensation Humira has lost patent exclusivity, and the company is determined to recover profits. Net revenues for Humira were 29% lower than the year earlier, despite the drug’s $11.1 billion in first-quarter sales.

Among AbbVie’s therapeutic fields of interest are neurology, cancer, eye care, and immunology.

AbbVie CEO Richard A. Gonzalez stated, “Our existing neuroscience portfolio and our combined pipeline with Cerevel represents a significant growth opportunity well into the next decade. AbbVie will leverage its deep commercial capabilities, international infrastructure, and regulatory and clinical expertise to deliver substantial shareholder value with multibillion-dollar sales potential across Cerevel’s portfolio of assets.”

According to Michael J. Yee, an equity expert with Jefferies, AbbVie was taking a risk by purchasing Cerevel due to the company’s six anticipated data readings from clinical studies. Five of these readouts are slated to take place in 2024, while the date of the sixth is still uncertain.

Cerevel claims that Emaralidine – a muscarinic M4 receptor positive allosteric modulator (PAM) and one of Cerevel’s readout candidates – has the makings of a future antipsychotic that might be the gold standard for treating schizophrenia. Emraclidine is presently undergoing two Phase II studies with the goal of permitting registration. This followed Phase Ib research in which the medication showed encouraging safety and effectiveness in schizophrenia.

Emraclidine may be useful in treating psychosis associated with dementia in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), according to AbbVie and Cerevel. In order to assist in a possible program for Alzheimer’s disease psychosis, emraclidine is now being studied in a Phase I trial with healthy older volunteers.

Meanwhile, phase III trials are underway for tavapadon, a first-in-class dopamine D1/D5 specific selective agonist that shows promise as a monotherapy and adjunctive treatment for PD. According to AbbVie and Cerevel, tavapadon has the potential to be an effective treatment for early PD; it might complement AbbVie’s current symptomatic medicines for severe PD in the near future.

Yee noted that there is synergy between AbbVie and Cerevel, particularly concerning CERE’s key asset, emraclidine, currently undergoing evaluation for schizophrenia. He emphasized the coherence of this synergy with AbbVie’s neuropsych business, specifically mentioning their Vraylar (cariprazine) schizophrenia franchise, which has gained approval.

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