Imago BioSciences

History

2022: Merck buys $1.35 billion from Imago BioSciences

On November 21, 2022, the American pharmaceutical company Merck announced the conclusion of an agreement on the purchase of Imago BioSciences (Imago).

Under the terms of the contract, for each Imago share, the buyer will pay $36.0 in cash, and the total amount of the transaction will be $1.35 billion. This is more than twice the market value of Imago as of November 18, 2022. Moreover, after the announcement of the merger, the share price of this company doubled to $35.53.

Merck bought Imago BioSciences

Imago's takeover is expected to help giant Merck expand its range of blood disease drugs. The fact is that in 2028, the expiration of key patents for Merck Keytruda (pembrolizumab) to combat malignant formations is expected. In order to strengthen its position in the pharmaceutical market in 2021, Merck bought Acceleron Pharma for about $11.5 billion. In the summer of 2022, it became known that Merck was negotiating the takeover of Seagen biotech, which specializes in the creation of cancer drugs. The amount of this transaction could reach $40 billion, but the parties failed to come to an agreement.

In turn, Imago is developing innovative drugs for the treatment of myeloproliferative neoplasms and other bone marrow diseases. The takeover of this company is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2023 after obtaining the necessary approvals from regulators. Experts say the estimated potential revenue from the Imago deal probably won't be enough to make up for the financial loss of Keytruda's loss of exclusivity. Therefore, Merck may well try to absorb other large participants in the pharmaceutical industry.^[1]

Notes

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