Merck said Friday it would buy Cidara Therapeutics, the maker of an experimental flu therapy, in a $9.2 billion deal, as the pharma giants widens its pipeline to counter the impending revenue hit as its mega-blockbuster Keytruda loses patent protection.
Merck is paying $221.50 per share in cash for the San Diego company, more than double Cidara’s closing price on Thursday of $105.99. (Cidara’s share price was soaring in pre-market trading Friday after the Financial Times reported late Thursday that the deal was imminent.)
Cidara is developing a treatment that could provide protection from flu for people who don’t mount robust responses to vaccines, including older people and those with compromised immune systems. It is also working in earlier stages on cancer therapies.
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