AbbVie is making its biggest acquisition in years in a bid to expand its portfolio of autoimmune disease drugs, announcing on Monday plans to buy Apogee Therapeutics for nearly $11 billion.
The pharmaceutical giant will pay $135.11 per share for Apogee, a roughly 49% premium to the biotechnology company’s closing price on Friday. The acquisition should close in the third quarter of 2026, pending approvals from shareholders and regulatory agencies.
The Financial Times first reported news of a pending deal on Friday.
The purchase is AbbVie’s largest since taking over Botox maker Allergan in a $63 billion deal in 2019. It also surpasses the company’s big-ticket buyouts of ImmunoGen and Cerevel Therapeutics in 2023, two deals AbbVie used to add medicines for cancer and neurological diseases.
For the biotechnology sector, the buyout adds to a particularly active year for company purchases. So far, 32 deals have been struck with at least $50 million in guaranteed upfront payments. Around two thirds of those deals have been worth at least $1 billion and six have eclipsed $5 billion. Both totals are on pace to surpass what’s been seen in every year since at least 2020, according to BioPharma Dive data.
