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Acceleron Investors Want Merck To Pay More, Ask Company To Wait For Better Offer

$11.5bn Acquisition Values Firm At A 34%-38% Premium

 
• By Mandy Jackson

Avoro Capital, Holocene Advisors and Darwin Global say that Acceleron should sell later for a higher price based on forthcoming data or Merck should raise its bid above $180 per share.

Hand turns a dice and changes the expression "bad deal" to "good deal"
Three investors said they will not sell their Acceleron shares to Merck • Source: Alamy

Three investment firms with significant holdings in Acceleron Pharma, Inc. have come forward to encourage the company’s other shareholders not to tender their shares in Merck & Co., Inc.’s $11.5bn deal to buy the company. Avoro Capital, Holocene Advisors and Darwin Global Management Limited say the acquisition’s $180-per-share price significantly undervalues Acceleron as it awaits Phase III data for its potentially disease-modifying pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) drug candidate sotatercept.

Merck highlighted sotatercept as a drug with blockbuster sales potential that could meaningfully expand the company’s cardiovascular disease portfolio, when...

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