NEW YORK – Darmstadt, Germany-based Merck KGaA on Monday said it will buy SpringWorks Therapeutics, a company developing precision treatments for rare tumors, in a deal with an enterprise value of €3.0 billion ($3.4 billion).
Merck KGaA will purchase SpringWorks for $47 per share in cash, which represents an equity value of $3.9 billion. The purchase price represents a 26 percent premium to SpringWorks' 20-day volume-weighted average share price of $37.38 on Feb. 7, the day before market speculation began regarding a potential transaction between the firms.
The deal is aimed at strengthening Merck KGaA's presence in the US healthcare market, where it operates as EMD Serono, and extending the global reach of SpringWorks' products. Merck KGaA expects the deal to immediately bring in revenues and become accretive to its earnings per share in 2027.
"We have the unique opportunity with SpringWorks to establish a leadership position in rare tumors and build a strong foundation for further investments in this area, where a large unmet medical need exists," Peter Guenter, member of the executive board and CEO of healthcare at Merck KGaA, said in a statement. "Together, our company and SpringWorks are the perfect combination to improve outcomes for patients with rare tumors and bring therapeutic innovations to more patients worldwide while building on and reinforcing the early success of SpringWorks in the United States."
Stamford, Connecticut-based SpringWorks currently sells two commercialized drugs in the US, Ogsiveo (nirogacestat) for adults with progressing desmoid tumors who require systemic treatment and Gomekli (mirdametinib) for pediatric and adult patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 who have symptomatic plexiform neurofibromas not amenable to complete resection. Both treatments are also poised to enter the European market.
SpringWorks also has several precision oncology treatments in its early development pipeline. For example, the firm is developing brimarafenib, a RAF and dimer inhibitor, in a Phase I trial in MAPK-mutant solid tumors and the TEAD inhibitor SW-682 in Hippo mutant tumors in a Phase I trial.
The transaction, which has been approved by both companies' boards of directors, is expected to close in the second half of 2025. JP Morgan is financial adviser and Sullivan & Cromwell is legal counsel to Merck KGaA in the deal. Centerview Partners and Goldman Sachs are financial advisers and Goodwin Procter is legal counsel to SpringWorks.