Merck to acquire rare diseases company SpringWorks

28 April 2025

After reported discussions since February, German pharma and sciences company Merck KGaA (MRK: DE) has confirmed its intension to acquire the US drug developer SpringWorks Therapeutics (Nasdaq: SWTX).

The purchase price of $47 per share in cash represents an equity value of approximately $3.9 billion, or an enterprise value of $3.4 billion (3.0 billion euros) based on SpringWorks’ cash balance as of December 31, 2024, and a premium of 26% to SpringWorks’ unaffected 20-day volume-weighted average price of $37.38 on February 7, 2025, the day prior to the first market speculation of a potential transaction between Merck and SpringWorks. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2025.

Shares of the Connecticut based company were up a modest 3.1% to $46.12 in pre-market activity, having risen 8.7%, to $44.80, in afternoon trading Thursday when speculation on the deal intensified. SpringWorks was spun out of Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) in 2017 with two assets – mirdametinib and nirogacestat.

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