This 1 Bullish Move by Merck Could Drive Growth for Years to Come
On Jan. 8, pharmaceutical giant Merck (NYSE: MRK) moved to acquire biotech Harpoon Therapeutics, (NASDAQ: HARP) for $680 million in cash. The point of the acquisition, which should close in the first half of this year, is to gain access to Harpoon's technology and its pipeline of early-stage therapy candidates for various solid tumor cancers, including a pair that aim to treat small cell lung cancer and multiple myeloma.
Overall, the move will bolster Merck's oncology pipeline directly, and it might also pave the way for many other opportunities to develop powerful new combination therapies not too far down the road. The financial benefits for shareholders could be quite significant.
The key thing to understand here is that Harpoon's technology platform may be especially versatile and effective at creating cancer-fighting therapies.
Source Fool.com