Investing.com -- Enliven Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ELVN) shares surged 28% Wednesday after Merck (NYSE: MRK) announced plans to acquire oncology firm Terns Pharmaceuticals in a $6.7 billion deal.

Merck said Wednesday it will acquire clinical-stage oncology company Terns Pharmaceuticals for $53.00 per share in cash, representing an approximate equity value of $6.7 billion. The deal equates to approximately $5.7 billion net of acquired cash and represents a premium of 31% to the 60-day and 42% to the 90-day volume-weighted average stock price on Tuesday.

The acquisition centers on Terns' lead candidate, TERN-701, a novel investigational oral allosteric BCR::ABL1 tyrosine kinase inhibitor currently being evaluated in the Phase 1/2 CARDINAL trial for patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive, chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia previously treated with at least one prior TKI and who experienced treatment failure, suboptimal response or treatment intolerance. In March 2024, the FDA granted Orphan Drug Designation for TERN-701 for the treatment of CML.

Enliven Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the discovery and development of small molecule inhibitors for cancer patients. Its clinical programs include ELVN-001, a small molecule kinase inhibitor in Phase 1 clinical trial to treat adults with chronic myeloid leukemia, and ELVN-002, a central nervous system penetrant and irreversible human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 inhibitor in Phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer and other HER2 mutant tumors.