Seagen Gets A Nice Nod, From FDA — In Oncology Arena… Will It Rekindle… Merck’s Appetite? We Shall See.

Honestly, I think industry-wide, valuations have come in, a bit (since the heady days of last summer) — and if the two sides were (as rumored) around $10 billion apart, last summer… this FDA nod may just have widened the gap. Merck (generally) would be arguing that some water has run out of all of life science companies’ tubs… while Seagen will be touting this new and very substantial cash flow and profitability franchise… to up its valuation.

So… no, I’d expect that the M&A ship… as to Merck/SeaGen, has passed. But I could get surprised. Specifically, I think Seagen would want more than $40 billion now, to sell itself. Here’s the bit — from FiercePharma’s reporting, earlier today:

…The FDA on Thursday granted an accelerated approval to Seagen’s Tukysa as a second-line treatment along with Herceptin for RAS wild-type, HER2-positive unresectable or metastatic colorectal cancer. Specifically, the drug is approved in combination with Roche’s Herceptin for patients whose cancer progressed after treatment with fluoropyrimidine-, oxaliplatin- or irinotecan-based chemotherapy.

With the approval, the combination becomes the first FDA-approved treatment for HER2-positive metastatic colorectal cancer, Seagen noted….

Now you know… stranger things… could (in fact, have) happened. Grinning, out into the night here — with snows due again tomorrow night…. sigh.

नमस्ते