(Reuters) -Germany’s Merck KGaA is nearing a deal for SpringWorks Therapeutics, a source close to the deal said on Thursday.
Shares of SpringWorks rose 9.25% to $45.02.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported of the matter, said the German company is nearing a roughly $3.5 billion deal for the U.S. cancer and rare diseases drugmaker.
The two companies have agreed on a price close to $47 per share, and a deal could be completed as soon as Monday, assuming the talks don’t hit any more last-minute snags, according to the WSJ report.
In February, Merck said its negotiations to buy SpringWorks were ongoing, confirming an earlier report from Reuters.
The deal for SpringWorks would rank as one of the biggest pharma deals for the German healthcare and technology group in recent years, boosting its ongoing efforts to build out its cancer treatment pipeline. In 2015, Merck agreed to buy U.S. lab equipment supplier Sigma-Aldrich for $17 billion.
SpringWorks did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, while Merck declined to comment.
The Connecticut-based drugmaker, which went public in 2019, focuses on developing drugs to treat several rare cancers and genetic disorders.
Its monotherapy, Ogsiveo, has been approved in the U.S. to treat desmoid tumours — abnormal growth that occurs in connective tissues.
In February, the U.S. health regulator approved SpringWorks’ genetic disorder drug Gomekli.
Merck has recently suffered high-profile setbacks in late-stage drug trials, prompting it to halt development of its head and neck cancer drug xevinapant. A major trial testing multiple sclerosis drug evobrutinib failed in December 2023.
(Reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru and Sabrina Valle in New York; Editing by Alan Barona)
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