AbbVie reveals its bispecific interest

While things have gone disconcertingly quiet regarding an earlier rumoured $15bn tie-up between Summit and AstraZeneca, the former company's investors now have another intriguing prospect. Apparently AbbVie is interested in anti-PD-(L)1 x VEGF bispecifics, the field where Summit's Akeso-originated ivonescimab was a month ago reported by Bloomberg to have drawn Astra's attention. Speaking on a second-quarter earnings call on Thursday, AbbVie's chief scientific officer, Roopal Thakkar, said the class had "several assets that are revealing data over time. It is something that we're interested in and looking." AbbVie has shown willingness to pay top dollar in business development, even though it claims not to be facing significant patent expiries during the current decade. PD-(L)1 x VEGF assets have recently brought huge deals from Merck & Co, Pfizer and Bristol Myers Squibb, but AbbVie, along with Astra and Roche, features among big pharmas still without a presence here. AbbVie said it was especially important for a bispecific to combine with its ADCs in a variety of indications. Meanwhile, with no news of an Astra/Summit tie-up, it's possible that the UK group has baulked at paying the price that a possible deal's leaking was presumably designed to elicit.