2023-04-16 18:02:46
Posted Apr 16, 2023, 8:02 PM
by Michael Erman
April 16 (Archyde.com) – Merck & Co on Sunday announced it was buying Prometheus Biosciences Inc for around $10.8 billion, securing a promising experimental treatment for ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease and boosting its presence in the field of immunology.
The American pharmaceutical group will pay $200 per share for this California biotech company specializing in treatments for autoimmune diseases, which represents a 75% premium to Prometheus’ closing price of $114.01 on Friday. .
“This allows us to strengthen ourselves in the field of immunology and will allow us sustainable growth, we believe, into the 2030s, given the long life of the patent,” said Robert Davis, CEO of Merck, during an interview.
Robert Davis added that Prometheus’ drug, PRA023, being developed to treat ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease and other autoimmune conditions, might represent billions of dollars in revenue for Merck.
According to him, the recent publication of encouraging results from phase II clinical trials prompted Merck to take the plunge. “We have been monitoring their clinical development program for some time,” said Robert Davis.
If the deal closes in the third quarter of this year, as hoped, Merck might launch a late-stage ulcerative colitis study of the drug in the fourth quarter or first quarter of 2024, the US group’s chief executive said.
Merck has sought to strike deals to protect itself from possible loss of revenue when the patents for its blockbuster cancer immunotherapy Keytruda begin to expire towards the end of the decade. Last year, Keytruda’s sales amounted to nearly $21 billion.
Robert Davis said revenue from the Prometheus acquisition might begin to be seen around the time the Keytruda patents expire.
Merck was reportedly in talks last summer to buy cancer biotech Seagen Inc, but rival Pfizer Inc ended up closing a $43 billion deal last month to take over the company. (Reporting by Michael Erman in New Jersey, additional reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh and Akanksha Khushi in Bangalore, French version Benjamin Mallet)
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