Pfizer ends Astra bid hopes with Merck deal

Pfizer dampened investors’ expectations of a renewed bid for AstraZeneca yesterday by signing a major cancer drug deal with Germany’s Merck, reducing the US firm’s need for Astra’s products.

Merck will get an upfront payment of $850m (€680m) from the US pharmaceutical firm for sharing rights to develop its experimental immunotherapy drug with Pfizer. It is also eligible for up to $2bn in payments based on the medicine’s future success.

Merck’s MSB0010718C is part of a class of drugs known as anti-PD-L1 therapies, which work by blocking a tumour’s ability to evade the immune system’s defences.