Merck to buy Harpoon Therapeutics for $680 million (updated)

Harpoon Therapeutics

08/01/2024 12:41

(Adds details of the deal in paragraph 3 and background
throughout)
       Jan 8 (Reuters) - Merck & Co  MRK.N  said on Monday it
would buy cancer drug developer Harpoon Therapeutics  HARP.O 
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. 
    Harpoon has two immunotherapies in early stage development -
one for a type of lung cancer and the other for multiple
myeloma.
   Immunotherapies harness the power of the body's immune system
to treat people suffering from cancer and work by directing the
patient's T cells to recognize and attack the cancer.     
    

 (Reporting by Sriparna Roy and Bhanvi Satija in Bengaluru;
Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
 ((Sriparna.Roy@thomsonreuters.com;))