---
title: "Merck KGaA agrees to buy potential blood cancer cure"
url: "https://etf.net/news/merck-kgaa-to-buy-silence-therapeutics-2026-10-19"
published_at: "2026-10-19T14:07:53.484Z"
updated_at: "2026-10-19T14:23:35.893Z"
byline: "ETF.net Research"
---

# Merck KGaA agrees to buy potential blood cancer cure

The all-cash deal is a 130% premium to Friday's close, for a rare-disease drug the buyer called ready for Phase 3.

By ETF.net Research. Published Oct 19, 2026.

Merck KGaA agreed Monday to buy Silence Therapeutics for **$20** in cash per American depositary share, or ADS. The buyer is the German group, not the U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co.

Each ADS represents three ordinary shares of the London biotechnology company, so those shares are to receive $6.6667 in cash. The companies put the equity value at about $1.3 billion.

Silence said the price is a **130%** premium to Friday's ADS close of $8.68, and an 82% premium to the 30-day volume-weighted average price of $10.99.

## A rare-disease drug, not yet in Phase 3

The drug is divesiran, an experimental treatment for polycythemia vera, a rare blood cancer. Some patients depend on phlebotomy, regular blood draws, to keep red-cell counts down.

Divesiran is an siRNA therapy, which uses short interfering RNA to shut a gene down. Silence says the gene is TMPRSS6, expressed almost exclusively in the liver, and that it holds back hepcidin, the body's regulator of iron. Silencing it, the company says, is meant to raise hepcidin, restrict iron to the bone marrow and slow the excess red-cell production behind those blood draws.

Merck KGaA said the drug is injected once every three months, and called it ready for a Phase 3 trial. That trial has not begun.

Merck KGaA, citing the Phase 2 study SANRECO, said the responder rate was 88% with divesiran and 19% with placebo. Over 36 weeks, the company said, patients on the drug averaged 0.2 blood draws, against 2.1 on placebo.

Danny Bar-Zohar, chief executive of Merck KGaA's healthcare business and a member of its executive board, said the planned acquisition "provides an entry point into hematology through a biologically validated mechanism of action."

"We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, which is the result of a competitive sale process and delivers significant, immediate and certain value to our shareholders," said Iain Ross, Silence's interim principal executive officer and board chairman.

## Shareholders, a court and a close in 2027

The purchase is not done. It will proceed as a U.K. scheme of arrangement, a court-supervised deal rather than a tender offer.

It needs shareholder approval and a sanction from the High Court of Justice of England and Wales. Silence's Monday filing lists the U.S. antitrust waiting period and German antitrust approval among the conditions. The companies said Silence's board and the relevant Merck KGaA bodies unanimously approved the deal.

By 9:53 a.m. Eastern time Monday, the Nasdaq-listed ADSs traded at $19.585, up 125.6% from Friday, in a range of $19.58 to $19.61. More than 37 million ADSs had changed hands.

Chart: Silence ADSs closed at **$19.60** after Merck's $20 bid

The price was **41.5 cents**, about 2%, under the cash. Silence expects to close in the first quarter of 2027, and the agreement's end date is 11:59 p.m. London time on April 30, 2027.

Source: etf.net, https://etf.net/news/merck-kgaa-to-buy-silence-therapeutics-2026-10-19. Please cite the page URL.