ARTICLE | Deals
Merck-Verona, Cargo-Concentra, and new AI, AAV partnerships: Deals Report
Tang-backed Concentra buys another distressed company, as partnerships in AAV and AI round out the week’s deal activity
July 9, 2025 7:46 PM UTC
Beyond the biggest headline deal — the $10 billion acquisition of Verona Pharma plc (NASDAQ:VRNA) by Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK) — the past week also brought a deal to quietly wind down Cargo Therapeutics, as well as a handful of other partnerships around adeno-associated viral capsids and artificial intelligence.
CAR T developer Cargo Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:CRGX) laid off most of its staff in March and said it would evaluate options to determine a path forward. Now, it has chosen to accept an offer from Concentra Biosciences LLC that will take the biotech private — and is generally understood to be a wind-down strategy...