Merck and Bio-Techne have agreed that Merck will acquire Bio-Techne for $73 per share, representing a total enterprise value of approximately $11.3 billion. “This transaction is an important milestone towards delivering on our mid- to long-term strategic agenda. Bio-Techne is an outstanding fit that directly supports our… Read More
Protillion Biosciences has signed a drug discovery collaboration with Merck to “identify novel therapeutic candidates.” The agreement combines Protillion’s proprietary platform, Prot-MaP, with Merck’s expertise in the discovery of novel therapeutic candidates. The Prot-MaP technology is a megascale data generation platform, which Protillion says is purpose-built to deliver massive, just-in-time training sets to protein design… Read More
The latest episode of the DDW Highlights Podcast is now available to listen to below. DDW’s Bruno Quinney narrates five key stories of the previous week to keep DDW subscribers up-to-date on the latest industry news. Last week, an innovative therapy showed encouraging results in tackling melanoma. Elsewhere, why is… Read More
News round-up for 19 – 23 January by Bruno Quinney, Content Team at DDW. This week in DDW, innovative therapies have shown encouraging results in tackling melanoma and concussion. Elsewhere, a UK-Canadian partnership looks to advance vaccine technology. The top stories: Combination therapy could slash melanoma mortality… Read More
Merck and Moderna have announced encouraging five-year data for a therapy treating patients with high-risk melanoma. The Phase IIb trial of intismeran autogene, an investigational mRNA-based individualised neoantigen therapy (INT), reduced the risk of high-risk melanoma recurrence or death by 49% when combined with Keytruda (pembrolizumab). The combination… Read More
A surge in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) boosted the biopharma market by $36 billion at the end of 2025, a new report finds. Evaluate’s 2026 Preview Report shows $36 billion was generated through M&A last October and November, largely through biotech buyout. The report predicts M&A will continue to play an… Read More
Merck (MSD outside of the US and Canada) has acquired Cidara Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing drug-Fc conjugate (DFC) therapeutics, for approximately $9.2 billion. Cidara’s lead candidate, CD388, consists of a small molecule neuraminidase inhibitor stably conjugated to a proprietary Fc fragment of a human antibody designed… Read More
Eisai and Merck (MSD outside of the US and Canada) have announced that in a Phase III trial, Lenvima (lenvatinib) plus Keytruda (pembrolizumab) with transarterial chemoembolisation (TACE) did not achieve statistical significance for overall survival (OS) compared to TACE alone. The LEAP-012 trial evaluated the combination in… Read More
Merck has entered a partnership with global life science service Promega Corporation to co-develop technologies advancing drug screening and discovery. The agreement will bring together Merck’s expertise in organoids and synthetic chemistry with Promega’s assay and reporter technologies. The companies aim to develop assays… Read More
US pharmaceutical giant Merck and technology company Siemens have signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), extending their strategic partnership to accelerate AI and data-driven drug discovery and development. The MoU focuses on delivering integrated software solutions, systems and consumables that harness automation, data and AI to… Read More
Merck is expanding access to TEDDY (Transformers for Enabling Drug DiscoverY), its foundation model for drug discovery, by adding it to HuggingFace, the premier platform for open-source machine learning and LLMs. TEDDY was created in partnership with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) AI Science Institute and is… Read More
Merck (known as MSD outside of the US and Canada) is to acquire Verona Pharma for a total transaction value of approximately $10 billion. Through this acquisition Merck will add Ohtuvayre (ensifentrine), a first-in-class selective dual inhibitor of phosphodiesterase 3 and 4 (PDE3 and PDE4), to its… Read More
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Enflonsia (clesrovimab-cfor) for the prevention of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) lower respiratory tract disease in neonates (newborns) and infants who are born during or entering their first RSV season. Enflonsia is a preventive, long-acting monoclonal antibody (mAb) designed… Read More
The Francis Crick Institute and MSD have opened a new Skylab facility, extending the footprint of the Crick and expanding opportunities for collaboration between the two organisations. The new 11,800 square foot specialised life sciences laboratory is located on the roof space of the Crick and… Read More
Cancer vaccine mRNA-4157 (V940) in combination with Keytruda reduced the risk of recurrence or death by 49% in patients with resected high-risk melanoma, according to follow-up data presented at ASCO 2024. The combination therapy was also shown to reduce the risk of distant metastasis or… Read More
Merck (MSD), through a subsidiary, has agreed to acquire immunotherapy company Harpoon Therapeutics for $680 million. The acquisition includes HPN328, an investigational delta-like ligand 3 (DLL3) targeting T-cell engager being evaluated in certain patients with small cell lung cancer and neuroendocrine tumours. The announcement… Read More
