Is Pfizer kicking Zenith's tires?

"This is a long post and the point is Pfizer's drug portfolio is a very good fit for them to seriously consider acquiring at least ZEN-3694 and maybe the entire company. 

Pfizer's $14B Medivation acquisition came into question when Xtandi (Enzalutamide) was considered to have lost some ground against Zytiga (Abiraterone) as the preferred SoC therapy for mCRPC in 2017.  If Xtandi is not meeting sales projections and a Xtandi+ZEN-3694 puts them back into the leader position in SoC for mCRPC, that's a very good result for Pfizer and takes the tarnish off the acquisition of Medivation.  The next synergy for Pfizer:

• TNBC trial with talazoparib (acquired with Enzalutamide in the Medivation deal) and Zen-3694.  Phase 1b/2 trial is active and dosing patients.
• Keytruda (pembrolizumab) + Enzalutamide (Xtandi) + ZEN-3694 trial starting up and being paid for by UCSF.   (Zenith supplies drug)

Zenith's top 3 active trials all involve Pfizer.   

Don't stop there, Pfizer has 4 other drugs where ZEN-3694 showed synergy with them:

1. Palbociclib - ER+ Breast cancer (4th trial listed on slide 6 of the AGM deck, with Pfizer again?)
2. Sunitinib - NSCLC (non small cell lung cancer)
3. Crizotinib - AML (acute myeloid leukemia)
4. Vidaza - Melanoma

Where did this come from...

I was looking for who owns Abiraterone (Johnson & Johnson) and who owns Enzalutamide (Pfizer) and found this story of Pfizer acquiring Medivation for $14B in 2016.

https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer_to_acquire_medivation

Bolding is done by me to hi-lite Xtandi was the leader in mCRPC at the time.  $2.2B revenue + pipeline and Pfizer pays $14B.  The pipeline is other cancer compounds including talazoparib and pidilizumab.

"Medivation’s portfolio includes XTANDI® (enzalutamide), an androgen receptor inhibitor that blocks multiple steps in the androgen receptor signaling pathway within the tumor cell. XTANDI is the leading novel hormone therapy in the United States today and generated approximately $2.2 billion in worldwide net sales over the past four quarters, as recorded by Astellas Pharma Inc., with whom Medivation entered an agreement in 2009 to develop XTANDI globally and commercialize jointly in the U.S. Since its approval for advanced metastatic prostate cancer by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2012, XTANDI has treated 64,000 men to date in the U.S. alone. Medivation and Astellas have built a robust development program for XTANDI, including two Phase 3 studies in non-metastatic prostate cancer and another Phase 3 study in hormone-sensitive prostate cancer. It is also being further developed in Phase 2 studies for the potential treatment of advanced breast cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma."

https://www.businessinsider.com/why-pfizer-acquired-cancer-drugmaker-medivation-for-14-billion-2016-8

Medivations pipeline, link above, is 2 cancer prospects, talazoparib (look familiar?) and pidilizumab.

"Medivation talked up the value of talazoparib, saying it had the potential to be "best-in-class" among so-called PARP inhibitors — a new type of medicine that blocks a particular enzyme that's used by our cells to repair DNA so that tumors can't survive."

"pidilizumab, which is being developed to treat blood cancers"

Then I find this 2017 story on how Xtandi is not the leading treatment for mCRPC anymore and that Zytiga (Abiraterone) has taken the lead with superior trial results.

https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/pfizer-s-14b-medivation-deal-s-now-a-cautionary-m-a-tale-thanks-to-asco-data-analyst

“This study result, with the huge overall survival benefit and improvement in failure-free survival and time to skeletal events, establishes the Zytiga-plus-ADT combination as the new standard of care for men starting long-term ADT for metastatic or recurrent prostate cancer,” Porges said.

Meanwhile, in a test of longer-term therapy with Xtandi—the Plato trial—didn’t pan out. Continuing Xtandi alongside Zytiga in patients who’d progressed on Xtandi alone offered no additional benefit to switching to Zytiga by itself. The combo held off cancer progression for a median 5.7 months, compared with 5.6 months for patients who took Zytiga alone. Side effects were significantly worse on the combo, too.

Porges figures that the new Zytiga data will likely prompt “immediate filing” for a new indication and trigger changes in treatment guidelines—and as soon as reimbursement deals are made, a quick change to Zytiga-plus-ADT will lead to the combo being “almost universally used” in patients who can tolerate it.

And that, in turn, will push Xtandi to “the back of the bus” in terms of treatment sequence, Porges noted.

The ASCO presentations follow a first-quarter decline in sales for Xtandi, which Pfizer blamed on increasing use of patient-assistance programs. The company says it expects that effect to moderate as the year wears on, and pointed out that Zytiga itself slid in the period for similar reasons. But as Pfizer oncology chief Albert Bourla acknowledged during the company’s earnings call with analysts, “Today, Xtandi is performing below our expectations in the U.S.”

The top-line Xtandi data released in December, along with those numbers, had already prompted investors to question the wisdom of paying $14 billion for Medivation."

 So, there are at least 5 drugs in Pfizer's portfolio that look very good for ZEN-3694 combos.  Then throw in the Keytruda type combos and ....

Don has said in the past he is waiting for a significant milestone to be reached before he takes Zenith public.  Is a phase 3 trial announcement for ZEN-3694 + Enzalutamide big enough?  Breakthrough therapy designation?  Confirmed roadmap to commercialization?

Has Pfizer been kicking the tires all along and not met Don's asking price? Is there already an informal agreement between Pfizer and Zenith waiting on that elusive milestone?

Don, I hope you read this.  I'd be very happy with a $5B offer from Pfizer any time now.  $10+B if Pfizer waits for a successful phase 3 trial.

MFC all"

This ceo is totally incompetent imo & has single handedly crushed both companies. Hard to believe this disaster.I'm not expecting anything different until he is removed.