REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsNov 30 (Reuters) - AbbVie (ABBV.N) will buy ImmunoGen (IMGN.O) for $10.1 billion in cash, it said on Thursday, the latest major drugmaker to buy a developer of 'guided missile' cancer therapies as the company's top-seller Humira grapples with fierce competition. ImmunoGen's Elahere belongs to a new class of treatments called antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) that precisely targets cancer cells, potentially reducing toxicity for other cells. The drug, approved for ovarian cancer patients who have received previous therapies, is also being tested in earlier lines of treatment. AbbVie will also get access to Immunogen's follow-on pipeline of ADCs, including early-stage ovarian cancer candidate IMGN-151 and a mid-stage drug pivekimab sunirine for a rare type of blood cancer. Meanwhile, AbbVie's cancer drugs sales declined more than 8% in the third quarter to $1.51 billion, primarily due to increased competition to Imbruvica.

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Persons: Brian Snyder, ImmunoGen's Elahere, AbbVie, IMGN, pivekimab, Immuogen stock's, Immunogen's, Elahere, Imbruvica, Manas Mishra, Leroy Leo, Shinjini Ganguli Organizations: REUTERS, Pfizer, Merck, U.S, Thomson Locations: Cambridge , Massachusetts, U.S, Bengaluru