Merck & Co. announced Monday an agreement to buy cancer-treatment developer Harpoon Therapeutics Inc. in a deal valued at $680 million.
Under the terms of the deal, Merck will pay $23 in cash for each Harpoon share outstanding, which represents a 118% premium to Friday’s closing price of $10.55.
“At Merck, we continue to enhance our oncology pipeline through strategic acquisitions that complement our current portfolio and advance breakthrough science to help address the needs of people with cancer worldwide,” said Dean Li, president of Merck Research Laboratories.
Harpoon’s stock
HARP,
rocketed 109.8% toward an 18-month high in premarket trading, while Merck shares
MRK,
eased less than 0.1%.
The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2024. Merck expects to record a charge of about $650 million, or 26 cents a share, for the deal after it closes.
Harpoon’s lead candidate, HPN328, is currently being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 trial in patients with advanced cancers associated with expression of delta-like ligand 3 (DLL3) that is expressed in small cell lung cancer and neuroendocrine tumors.
Bloomberg News had reported earlier that a deal was in the works.
Harpoon’s stock had run up 182.8% over the past three months through Friday, while Merck shares had advanced 12.8% and the S&P 500 index
SPX
had gained 9.0%.
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