More M&A:
Jan 8 (Reuters) - Merck & Co said on Monday it would buy cancer drug developer Harpoon Therapeutics for about $680 million, reinforcing its oncology portfolio with immunotherapies.
The U.S. drugmaker has been doubling down on building future revenue streams as its blockbuster immunotherapy, Keytruda, inches closer to losing key patents, opening the doors for competition from biosimilars.
Merck has offered $23 per share in cash for California-based Harpoon, representing a 118% premium to the stock's last close on Friday.
Shares of Harpoon more than doubled premarket on Monday after deal talks were first reported by Bloomberg
And:
SAN DIEGO, Jan. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ambrx Biopharma, Inc., or Ambrx (NASDAQ: AMAM), today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which Johnson & Johnson will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Ambrx for $28.00 per share in cash, representing an approximately 105% premium to Ambrx’s closing stock price on January 5, 2024, for a total equity value of approximately $2.0 billion.
“We are excited to reach this agreement with Johnson & Johnson for advancing scientific research to treat cancers with high unmet needs,” said Daniel J. O’Connor, Chief Executive Officer of Ambrx. “With our deep and unique knowledge of precision engineering of protein therapeutics enabled by our proprietary technology incorporating synthetic amino acids in living cells, Ambrx has developed next-generation novel drug candidates such as site-specifically conjugated highly stable antibody drug conjugates. Through this transaction, we will continue to advance our leading prostate cancer candidate and Ambrx’s promising pipeline, while delivering significant and certain cash value to our shareholders. This announcement is the culmination of two decades of scientific work, combined with the Ambrx team’s talent, hard work and innovation. I look forward to what Ambrx will achieve as part of Johnson & Johnson.”
