Wachtell and Sullivan & Cromwell Tapped to Play Lead Roles in Pfizer’s $43 billion Seagen Acquisition

Wachtell and Sullivan & Cromwell Tapped to Play Lead Roles in Pfizer’s $43 billion Seagen Acquisition

Pfizer’s $43 billion acquisition of cancer drug maker Seagen sees merger and acquisition powerhouses Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz (WLRK) advising Pfizer and Sullivan & Cromwell (S&C) representing Seagen.

Pfizer has announced that it will acquire cancer drug maker Seagen for $43 billion, paying $229 per share in cash. The deal is expected to be completed by late 2023 or early 2024.

Corporate partners Edward Herlihy, David Lam, and Zachary Podolsky led the team at Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz. Herlihy is also co-chair of the firm’s executive committee.

The team also included partners Nelson Fitts (antitrust), Michael Schobel (executive compensation and benefits), Gregory Pessin (finance), and Tijana Dvornic (tax), along with a group of counsel and associates providing support.

The team at Sullivan & Cromwell consisted of nine partners, including Matthew Hurd, Melissa Sawyer, and Bradley King who specialise in corporate matters. Additionally, the team had expertise in executive compensation (Matthew Friestedt), intellectual property (Rachel Yu), tax (Davis Wang), and antitrust (Renata Hesse, Michael Rosenthal, and Samantha Hynes).

By acquiring Seagen, Pfizer, which is based in New York, is expanding its cancer portfolio in preparation for an anticipated decline in sales of its Covid-19 products and the potential expiration of patents for some of its most popular drugs in the near future.

Seagen, headquartered outside of Seattle, was a trailblazer in the field of antibody-drug conjugates, a type of cancer medication that focuses on cancer cells while minimising the risk of off-target toxicity.

The company is projected to generate $2.2 billion in revenue this year. According to Pfizer, Seagen has the potential to contribute over $10 billion in revenue by 2030.

“Oncology continues to be the largest growth driver in global medicine, and this acquisition will enhance Pfizer’s position in this important space and contribute meaningfully to the achievement of Pfizer’s near- and long-term financial goals,” Dr. Albert Bourla, Pfizer chairman and chief executive officer, said.

Meantime Seagen chief executive, David Epstein, described the combination with Pfizer as “the right next step for Seagen to further its strategy”.

This acquisition is the most recent major transaction for Sullivan & Cromwell, which ranked first in Refinitiv's global M&A legal advisor rankings by deal value for the second year in a row, having worked on 176 deals worth a total of $516.6 billion in the previous year.