ADCs are hot right now, but amongst big pharma, not everyone has jumped in with the same enthusiasm

I took a look at the oncology portfolios of the largest pharma companies and charted key assets by development stage

Exhibit 1: Uneven ADC Exposure Within Big Pharma

Some takeaways:

• Exposure is very top-heavy: Pfizer, Daiichi, AstraZeneca, AbbVie and Merck have the bulk of clinical programs, particularly for those in late-stage development
• Novartis, Lilly, Gilead and Roche have the lightest clinical pipelines overall, with all other companies generally holding more early stage assets and lacking late-stage ones; only Novartis has no disclosed direct exposure to ADCs, which was a conscious strategic decision as they instead focused on core competencies elsewhere (namely radiopharmaceuticals)
• As is often the case with big pharma pipelines, so many of the key assets are in-licensed, sometimes from other pharma companies, as we saw with the massive $22B Merck / Daiichi deal (Merck has generally been the most aggressive with BD in this space)

Overall, we've seen almost $100B in total partnership / licensing deal activity since 2019, with nearly half coming in 2023 - indicative of how fast things are heating up as companies lay down claims to innovative new programs from the 40+ pure-play ADC biotechs

Amongst the highly exposed companies, M&A has also been key to bringing in foundational assets & expertise. Since 2020, there have been 3 mega-deals (>$10B):

1. Gilead / Immunomedics ($21B) - brought in Trodelvy (TROP2)

2. Pfizer / SeaGen ($43B) - brought in ADCETRIS (CD30), Padcev (Nectin-4), Tivdak (TF), Tukysa (HER2) + several clinical assets

3. AbbVie / Immunogen ($10B) - brought in Elahere (FRα) + a few clinical assets such as Pivekimab (CD123)

All that capital flowing in means this will remain an exciting space to watch - already cumulative sales across FDA approved assets is expected to reach $30B by the end of the decade.

Behind that, there's no shortage of innovation happening in this space - with 50+ unique targets, including 10 that have been clinically validated via FDA approval and >100 active programs.