AbbVie to Broaden Oncology Menu With $5.8B Stemcentrx Acquisition

AbbVie has agreed to acquire Stemcentrx for $5.8 billion in a deal intended to expand the company’s oncology pipeline.

AbbVie will obtain Stemcentrx’s lead asset Rovalpituzumab tesirine (Rova-T) and four additional early-stage clinical compounds to treat solid tumors.

Rova-T is a biomarker-specific antibody drug conjugate that targets the cancer stem cell protein DLL3, which is expressed in 80 percent of small-cell lung cancers. The therapy is being studied in the third-line setting for SCLC, for which there are no existing treatments.