Why is Pfizer playing an $11.6 billion gamble on Biohaven?

Pfizer Inc announced on Tuesday that it will pay $11.6 billion for Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Co, a large gamble on the company’s capacity to increase sales of the top-selling tablet in a new class of migraine treatments.

The acquisition has been accepted by the boards of both firms, they said. Pfizer was up marginally at $48.83, while Biohaven rose 70% to $141.31.

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Pfizer is rich with cash following a once-in-a-lifetime boom in revenue from COVID-19 vaccines and therapies, and the company has stated that it is looking to acquire firms or pharmaceuticals that may generate at least $25 billion in annual sales by the end of the decade.

The New York-based pharmaceutical company predicted that Biohaven’s migraine medications might generate $6 billion in yearly sales at their height.

Pfizer’s major asset from the acquisition is Biohaven’s already approved Nurtec ODT, which belongs to the calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) inhibitor class of migraine therapies. Six more migraine medicines are also being developed by the business.

Nurtec competes with two CGRP inhibitor tablets from AbbVie Inc., which had sales of $462.5 million in 2021. In this class, the top-selling medications are injectable pharmaceuticals sold by Eli Lilly and Company and Amgen Inc.

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“The CGRP oral medications, though still somewhat newer entrants in a deeply entrenched space, continue to make steady inroads in disrupting the broader migraine market in the U.S.,” Vlad Coric, CEO of BioHaven, stated

Nurtec revenues are expected to be $825 million to $900 million in 2022, according to Biohaven.

Pfizer expects the pills to someday outnumber the jabs.

Pfizer Chief Business Innovation Office Aamir Malik stated on a conference call that the purchase adds a “breakthrough migraine franchise into our portfolio, which we can then enhance and bring to even more patients with our commercial capabilities.”

Pfizer announced that it will increase the size of Nurtec’s sales staff, allowing it to reach out to an additional 70,000 doctors in the United States. It is expected that CGRP inhibitor pills will eventually account for roughly 40% of migraine medication prescriptions, up from around 5% today.

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Pfizer will pay $148.50 per share in cash for all Biohaven shares it does not already hold, a 78.6 percent premium to Monday’s closing price. In November, it purchased a 2.6 percent investment in Biohaven.

Pfizer has announced plans to spin off Biohaven’s non-migraine medications into a new publicly traded firm. For each share of Biohaven stock they now own, shareholders will receive 0.5 shares of the new company.

Biohaven’s stock, like much of the biotech sector, has plummeted in recent months, dropping 45 percent of its value since peaking at $151.26 in October.

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“One weight on the sector has been a relative lack of M&A of late, and … we think this news may be just what the doctor ordered to restore sentiment,” Christopher Raymond, a Piper Sandler analyst, stated

Pfizer’s Biohaven acquisition is the company’s largest since its $14 billion purchase of cancer pharmaceutical Medivation in 2016.

“Investors will like this deal,” Mohit Bansal, an analyst at Wells Fargo, stated in a note. “Given Pfizer’s strong balance sheet, this is still a small acquisition and we would expect more such deals.”