Merck KGaA Will Pay $1.3 Billion for Silence Therapeutics, Buying Its Way Into Haematology With One Phase 3-Ready siRNA

Merck KGaA said on 19 October that it will acquire Silence Therapeutics for $20 per American depositary share in cash, an equity value of about $1.3 billion and an enterprise value of $1.1 billion, through a UK scheme of arrangement financed with new debt. The prize is divesiran, a wholly owned siRNA that silences TMPRSS6 to raise hepcidin and limit the iron available for red cell production in phlebotomy-dependent polycythaemia vera, dosed every three months. It holds FDA fast track and orphan designations, and Merck calls it Phase 3-ready. Holders of about 14% of voting power have agreed to vote in favour. The deal follows Merck’s acquisition of SpringWorks Therapeutics last year.

82%

Premium to the 30-day volume-weighted price of $10.99, and 130% to the last close

88%

Divesiran responders in the Phase 2 SANRECO trial, against 19% on placebo

0.2

Mean phlebotomies over 36 weeks with divesiran, against 2.1 on placebo

Q1 2027

Expected close, after the shareholder vote and court sanction

Deal read

Merck KGaA paid for certainty on one asset and a new therapy area. A premium of that size for a company whose value rests on a single programme reflects a competitive sale process, and it prices divesiran’s Phase 2 effect as close to settled. Merck itself calls the deal its entry point into haematology.

Polycythaemia vera developers: the hepcidin pathway now has a large-company owner. Other programmes act on the same iron biology, including the hepcidin mimetic rusfertide from Protagonist and Takeda and Ionis’s TMPRSS6 antisense drug sapablursen. Divesiran’s every-three-months dosing is the line Merck is likely to sell against more frequently dosed rivals.
Merck KGaA’s specialty strategy: a pipeline behind the launches. SpringWorks brought marketed rare tumour medicines last year; Silence brings a Phase 3 haematology asset. Merck is now building late-stage rare disease depth rather than buying single launches.
Signposts: the vote, the Phase 3 and the rest of Silence. Watch the shareholder vote and High Court sanction, the design and start of the divesiran Phase 3, and what Merck does with the rest of Silence’s siRNA pipeline, including the Lp(a) candidate zerlasiran.

Read the original source (Merck KGaA) →
Read the Silence Therapeutics announcement →