With $6.7B buy, Merck sees ‘best-in-class’ blockbuster in Terns’ CML therapy

Merck’s $6.7 billion purchase of Terns hinges on the belief that the biotech’s chronic leukemia therapy can capture a share of first-line patients, based on efficacy and safety evidence that emerged at the American Society of Hematology meeting in fall 2025.

Assuming it’s completed, the deal will give Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK) possession of TERN-701, a BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase inhibitor in the same class as Gleevec imatinib and Scemblix asciminib for Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). Imatinib is now generic; Novartis AG (SIX:NOVN; NYSE:NVS) markets Scemblix...