Jersey City, New Jersey, April 24, 2026, 09:55 (EDT)
Organon & Co. shares rose sharply Friday after The Economic Times reported that India’s Sun Pharmaceutical Industries had submitted a binding, all-cash offer of about $13 billion for the U.S. women’s health drugmaker, stepping up a takeover race that also includes EQT and Germany’s Grünenthal. The newspaper said the offer was backed by $12 billion in financing from JPMorgan, MUFG and Citi, and that Organon shareholders would not receive Sun Pharma stock.
The move matters because the reported bid is far above Organon’s equity value and would put a debt-heavy former Merck business in play. Organon shares were up about 25% at $10.75 in early New York trading, giving the company a market value of about $2.8 billion.
Sun investors were cooler on the idea. Sun Pharma shares fell more than 3% in Mumbai trading after the reports, while Navann Ty, an analyst at BNP Paribas, was quoted as saying Organon’s “longer-term positioning remains strong” but that a Sun deal could be seen as “imprudent capital allocation” because it would add leverage. Moneycontrol
Neither company has confirmed a transaction. Sun Pharma told Indian exchanges on April 10 that an earlier report about a $12 billion Organon deal was speculative and that there was no material event requiring disclosure under listing rules.
Organon is not a simple bolt-on. The Jersey City-based company reported 2025 revenue of $6.216 billion, adjusted EBITDA — earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and certain other items — of $1.907 billion, and year-end debt of $8.64 billion. It has guided for roughly flat 2026 revenue of about $6.2 billion and adjusted EBITDA of about $1.9 billion.
The attraction is the product base. Organon’s portfolio spans women’s health, established medicines and biosimilars, which are near-copy versions of complex biologic drugs. Its brands include the contraceptive implant Nexplanon, fertility products, Vtama cream and biosimilars in immunology and oncology.
The price is the harder question. Business Today cited ICICI Direct estimates that, at the earlier reported $12 billion value, Organon would be valued at about two times expected 2026 sales and six times EBITDA. Salil Kallianpur, a pharma analyst, said Sun’s higher bid suggests “this is more than a strategic acquisition,” but warned that paying up reduces the margin for error. Business Today
The risk is clear: the deal may not happen, a rival bidder could push the price higher, or Sun could pull back if the debt load looks too steep. Organon also carries governance baggage. Reuters reported in October that then-CEO Kevin Ali resigned after an internal probe found improper sales practices tied to Nexplanon wholesaler purchases, though the company said the findings did not require a financial restatement.
Investors will get another scheduled look at Organon’s standalone business soon. The company said it will report first-quarter 2026 results on May 7 before an 8:30 a.m. ET conference call and does not currently expect to record milestone expense for the quarter.
For now, Organon stock is trading less like a slow-growth drugmaker and more like a takeover target. The next move depends on whether a formal offer appears, whether competitors stay in, and whether buyers are willing to take on nearly $9 billion of debt for a women’s health and biosimilars platform.
