‘We knew it was there’: AbbVie CEO says company favored internal work over potential Daiichi deal

AbbVie CEO Rich Gonzalez says the company was aware of the potential for an ADC transaction with Daiichi that Merck ultimately pounced on, electing to prioritize internal work instead.

“We knew it was there,” he said on the company’s third-quarter earnings call Thursday. “But the reality is we believe we have what we need with [ABBV-400].” That internally-developed antibody-drug conjugate is currently in a phase 1 trial for patients with solid tumors.