Big pharma can’t get enough of one class of cancer drugs

AROUND THEAIADCADC world, dealmaking is in a rut. A combination of higher interest rates, geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty has put a hold on joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions. One exception is targets with in their name. Another, less obvious one, involves a less catchy initialism: s.Makers of these antibody-drug conjugates, to give them their full name, are all the rage among the world’s biggest drugmakers. Pfizer is paying $43bn for Seagen, which in turn has just teamed up with Nurix Therapeutics, a smaller biotechnology firm, to work on this class of drugs. Amgen, AstraZeneca and Merck have also placed billion-dollar bets on s. In the past five years licensing deals worth $60bn have been signed for such therapies. The number of such deals tripled in that period, to 26. So far this year 18 have been signed, outpacing similar deals involving other emerging cancer drugs.