Merck & Co. has agreed to acquire Acceleron Pharma for $11.5 billion, the companies said today, in a deal designed to bolster the buyer’s cardiovascular and blood drug portfolios with a Phase III pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH)drug and a marketed anemia treatment.
Acceleron focuses on developing drugs based on the transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta superfamily of proteins, which has been shown to play a central role in the regulation of cell growth, differentiation and repair.
