MSD rumoured to be nearing $6bn play for Terns Pharma

MSD's glut of pipeline-boosting deals in the build-up to a looming patent cliff is said to be continuing with a $6 billion bid to acquire Terns Pharma.

Citing people close to the matter, the Financial Times reports that talks between the companies are at an advanced stage, with an all-cash deal poised to be announced in the coming days.

MSD – known as Merck & Co in the US and Canada – has been bolting on programmes to its pipeline for the last few years as it braces for the loss of patent protection for cancer immunotherapy Keytruda (pembrolizumab), the world's top-selling drug with sales of nearly $32 billion last year, from 2028.

Buying Terns would give it ownership of TERN-701, an oral BCR-ABL inhibitor that is due to start a pivotal trial in chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) around the end of 2026 and promises to improve on rival therapies, like Novartis' market-leading STAMP inhibitor Scemblix (asciminib), in efficacy, safety, and convenience.

Novartis has said peak sales of Scemblix could reach $4 billion, after reporting an 87% increase to nearly $1.3 billion last year, driven by a label expansion to include newly diagnosed patients.

Terns has said it thinks TERN-701 has the potential to become a 'best-in-disease' therapy, as clinical results to date suggest it can improve on Scemblix's molecular response rates in CML, with a cleaner safety profile and no signs of the pancreatic toxicity that is sometimes seen with Novartis' drug.

TERN-701 is dosed orally once a day, like Scemblix, but can be taken with or without food, while the latter has to be taken on an empty stomach.

Following the CML programme, Terns also has a THR-β agonist (TERN-501) intended for use alone or in combination with other metabolic therapies for obesity and fatty liver diseases, and a GIPR antagonist (TERN-801) for weight loss.

Those two candidates had been earmarked for out-licensing as Terns focused on TERN-701, but MSD may opt to take them forward if the takeover goes through. The company had also been developing an oral GLP-1 agonist for obesity, TERN-601, but shelved the programme last year after concluding its profile was uncompetitive with rival projects further along in development.

This is the second rumour linking it to a sizeable takeover this year, coming after reports it reached late-stage discussions to buy Revolution Medicines for around $30 billion, but could not finalise terms. Last year, it also acquired Verona Pharma for $10 billion and Cidara Therapeutics for $9.2 billion, respectively adding respiratory and infectious disease therapies to its portfolio.

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