Merck & Co announced on Sunday that it has acquired Prometheus Biosciences Inc for approximately $10.8 billion, securing a promising experimental treatment for ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease and bolstering its presence in the field of immunology.
The US pharmaceutical group will pay $200 per share for this California biotech company specializing in treatments for autoimmune diseases, representing a 75% premium to Prometheus’s 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, towards the 2030s, given the long life of the patent,” said Robert Davis, CEO of Merck, during an interview.
Agreements to protect against a potential loss of revenue related to sales of Keytruda
Robert Davis added that the Prometheus drug, PRA023, which is being developed to treat ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease and other autoimmune diseases, could 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 step. “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 expected, Merck could launch a late-stage ulcerative colitis study of the drug in the fourth or first quarter of 2024, the US group’s chief executive said.
Merck has been trying to strike deals to guard against a potential loss of revenue when the patents on its successful Keytruda cancer immunotherapy begin to expire towards the end of the decade. Last year, Keytruda’s sales totaled nearly $21 billion. Robert Davis said the proceeds from the Prometheus acquisition could start to show when Keytruda’s 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.
Source: BFM TV
