Merck, under outgoing CEO Ken Frazier and now retired research chief Roger Perlmutter, has stayed away from large-scale dealmaking. But the pharma has proven an enthusiastic acquirer of early-stage, smaller companies, buying up seven private and public biotechs over the past two years.
Merck’s paid a high price for several of those deals, too, agreeing to pay a more than 300% premium for Immune Design in 2019, a 107% premium for ArQule that same year and, last month, a 140% premium for Pandion.
