AbbVie’s schizophrenia miss: implications for itself, BMS and M4 pipeline
Price tag of AbbVie’s Cerevel deal now harder to justify, as BMS’s first-mover advantage extends and M4 PAMs come into question
With one key competitor failing in Phase II and another still on clinical hold, BMS suddenly has more breathing room to execute its launch of schizophrenia therapy Cobenfy. Given the size of Cobeny’s market opportunity, investors added nearly $12 billion to BMS’s valuation Monday.
Emraclidine was the centerpiece of the $8.7 billion deal by AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) to acquire Cerevel Therapeutics Holdings Inc. — a hefty dollar amount for a program that had yet to demonstrate Phase II proof of concept. Emraclidine’s therapeutic target, the M4 muscarinic receptor, was considered derisked to some extent by Cobenfy’s Phase III data. Cobenfy, formerly known as KarXT, also stimulates M4 receptors in the CNS, and had yielded positive Phase III data when Bristol Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY) paid $14 billion to acquire Karuna Therapeutics Inc. for the compound. ...