True, as a follow on to the Keytruda® franchise -- at some point in time, likely in the mid-2030s -- Merck might favor this lead MoonLake candidate called sonelokimab.
And I suppose ~$3 billion (on a discounted for probability of FDA clearance basis) is as good a guess as any -- as to what might be a fair price today, for something that might one day be a $20 billion a year franchise. The best story to keep these breathless rumors in context was offered yesterday by Fierce (naturally!):
. . .The Financial Times reports Merck submitted a nonbinding offer that valued MoonLake at more than $3 billion earlier this year. The offer was rejected, but talks could be revived, the Financial Times said. MoonLake’s market cap was $2.6 billion when trading stopped yesterday [Friday] but climbed on news of Merck’s interest, with the stock rising almost 18% in premarket trading to send the biotech’s share price up to $48.50.
Buying MoonLake would give Merck ownership of sonelokimab, a molecule that could provide a source of revenue growth to help offset the anticipated emergence of biosimilar copies of Keytruda in 2028. [Condor's nota bene: the date will be more like 2032, though. Just watch the wrangling -- under the US patent laws.]
The biotech is aiming to report primary endpoint data from phase 3 trials of sonelokimab in September. . . .
The MLTX symbol traded as high as $49-something yesterday, when it was at about $34-something as recently as last Thursday, before the rumors started swirling. We shall see, but it would be true that both AstraZeneca and Bristol Myers Squibb would be likely potential suitors, as well.
Onward -- for a gloriously warm bike ride by the lake, now. . . smile. [One and all -- be excellent to your mothers; your time with them is precious. . . and surprisingly fleeting -- at least with their full faculties, as the decades roll on.]
नमस्ते
No comments:
Post a Comment