Merck is Reportedly Close to Buying Acceleron Pharma

According to a Wall Street Journal report and sources familiar with the situation, pharma giant Merck is in talks to acquire Acceleron Pharma.

The deal for Acceleron could be announced as early as this week said the sources, assuming that the discussions do not fall apart.

Acceleron, a public American “clinical stage biopharmaceutical company” based in Cambridge, Massachusetts with a broad focus on developing medicines that regulate the transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) superfamily of proteins, which play fundamental roles in the growth and repair of cells and tissues such as red blood cells, muscle, bone, and blood vessels, has a market value of around $11 billion. Merck has a market value of about $185 billion.

According to the anonymous sources, acquiring Accleeron would boost Merck’s rare-disease business.

If the deal is successful, it would be one of Merck’s biggest and represent a bet on the treatments for the respiratory and blood diseases that Acceleron specializes in.

Acceleron has an experimental drug called sotatercept for pulmonary arterial hypertension, a disease caused by high pressure in the blood vessels leading from the heart to the lungs. The condition leads to less oxygen in the blood.

Sotatercept promises to be the first that doesn’t just treat symptoms and slow down the disease, but could potentially stop it.

It should be noted that Bristol Myers owns 11.5% of Acceleron and has some financial claims over the company’s products.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.