By Colin Kellaher

Merck & Co. on Thursday said it agreed to buy clinical-stage biotechnology company Pandion Therapeutics Inc. for $60 a share, or about $1.85 billion, in cash.

The purchase price is more than double Wednesday's closing price of $25.63 for Pandion, a Watertown, Mass., company that is developing novel therapeutics for autoimmune diseases.

Merck said the acquisition adds a pipeline of candidates designed to rebalance the immune response, with potential applications across an array of autoimmune diseases.

The Kenilworth, N.J., drugmaker said it expects to complete the acquisition in the first half of 2021.

Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 25, 2021 07:13 ET (12:13 GMT)

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