Pfizer will be responsible for all global clinical and regulatory activities for Beam Therapeutics’ liver-directed gene editor.
Almost exactly a year ago to the day, Pfizer withdrew the hemophilia B gene therapy Beqvez from the market and ended all work on it. Now, the pharma wants back in the genetics game, inking a global gene editing pact with Beam Therapeutics.
Details of the deal, announced in Beam’s fourth-quarter earnings report on Tuesday, were scant. The companies did not reveal how much Pfizer is paying upfront, nor did they specify milestone values. It also remains unclear what disease the pharma plans to go after, though the partners did say the gene editor under license is a liver-targeted therapy.
Pfizer informed Beam of its decision to move forward with the candidate in December 2025, according to Tuesday’s release, upon the completion of a four-year research partnership. The companies first came together in January 2022, with a $300 million upfront payment from Pfizer and the potential of $1.05 billion in milestones.
Pfizer will have exclusive global rights to Beam’s editor. The pharma will take charge of all clinical development activities worldwide, as well as work toward regulatory approvals and set up manufacturing and commercialization networks, Beam said.
Aside from milestones, Beam will have the option, at the end of Phase 1/2 development, to opt in to the editor’s subsequent development. If the biotech chooses to participate, it will shoulder 35% of the costs and get 35% of net profits, while the remainder will fall to Pfizer.
The Beam bet represents an about-face for Pfizer, which in January 2025 abandoned the hemophilia B gene therapy Beqvez, pulling it from shelves across the world and ending all related development work. At the time, the pharma said it was pulling back given “limited interest patients and their doctors have demonstrated in hemophilia gene therapies.”
Since then, Pfizer hasn’t taken any steps to replenish its gene therapy pipeline.
The pharma has, however, been a very proactive dealmaker in other markets. Most notably, Pfizer came out on top of a messy bidding war with Novo Nordisk over obesity startup Metsera, ultimately paying aorund $10 billion.
Shortly after, the pharma bet up to $1.9 billion to partner with China’s YaoPharma for a GLP-1 drug. Earlier this week, Pfizer took another China trip and picked up a commercial GLP-1 injection called ecnoglutide from Sciwind Biosciences, paying up to $495 million.
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