Merck & Co Inc shares were up about 0.4% at $111.41 on Friday as investors weighed a report that the drugmaker is in talks to buy cancer biotech Revolution Medicines in a deal valued at $28 billion to $32 billion. Revolution shares jumped nearly 16% in extended trading on Thursday after the Financial Times report, which said talks were not final and could still take weeks, with other large drugmakers still circling; Merck and Revolution did not respond to requests for comment. The potential acquisition would be the biggest in the sector since Pfizer’s $43 billion Seagen deal and would add Revolution’s late-stage RAS cancer drug candidate daraxonrasib; Mizuho analysts estimate Revolution’s RAS inhibitors could generate more than $10 billion in risk-adjusted sales by 2035 as Merck looks past Keytruda patent expiries later this decade.
