Feb. 9 Quick Takes: AbbVie’s Gonzalez says next deal could be ‘much larger’ than $2B

During the pharma’s earnings call Thursday, AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) Chairman and CEO Richard Gonzalez said the company “could do a transaction that would be much larger” than the $2 billion cap it had imposed on itself following its 2019 takeout of Allergan plc for $63 billion. Gonzalez named immunology, oncology, neuroscience, and eye care as areas of interest, and said a deal could “help us round out a category that we’re in.” Last month, Gonzalez said AbbVie believes immunology drugs Rinvoq upadacitinib and Skyrizi risankizumab will more than make up for revenue lost to biosimilar competition for Humira adalimumab, whose patent exclusivity expired at the end of January; Gonzalez expects “a return to strong growth” in 2025.

FDA granted full approval to Jemperli dostarlimab-gxly from GSK plc (LSE:GSK; NYSE:GSK) to treat patients with mismatch repair deficient (dMMR) recurrent or advanced endometrial cancer. GSK is also hoping to expand the label of the PD-1 inhibitor to include rectal cancer — early data from a Phase II study at last year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting showed a 100% clinical complete response rate in mismatch repair-deficient rectal cancer patients. On Thursday, FDA’s Oncolytic Drugs Advisory Committee voted 8-5 in favor of a proposed clinical program for Jemperli as neoadjuvant treatment for locally advanced rectal cancer that relies on a pair of single arm studies -- with no randomized trials for the indication — and the not yet validated clinical complete response at 12 months (CCR12) endpoint. ...