Merck Inc. to acquire Idenix Pharma for $3.85 billion and with it Hepatitis C drug developments

Merck Inc., and Idenix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. have announced that the companies have entered into a definitive agreement under which Merck will acquire Idenix for $24.50 per share in cash. The transaction, which values the purchase of Idenix at approximately $3.85 billion, has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies. Idenix has established a promising portfolio of Hepatitis C candidates based on its expertise in nucleoside/nucleotide chemistry and prodrug technologies. These investigational Hepatitis C candidates complement developing therapies at Merck and will help advance the work of Merck to develop a highly effective, once-daily, all oral, ribavirin-free, pan-genotypic regimen that has a duration of treatment as short as possible for millions of patients in need around the world. Idenix currently has three HCV drug candidates in clinical development: two nucleotide prodrugs (IDX 21437 and IDX 21459) and a NS5A inhibitor (samatasvir).