Prometheus re­port­ed­ly drew a com­pet­ing Ab­b­Vie bid, ini­tial part­ner in­ter­est from 16 phar­mas be­fore ink­ing $10.8B Mer­ck buy­out

In the week af­ter this year’s JP Mor­gan Health­care Con­fer­ence, Prometheus Bio­sciences CEO Mark McKen­na got a phone call that would change the biotech’s fu­ture.

Sunil Pa­tel, Mer­ck’s head of busi­ness de­vel­op­ment and li­cens­ing, rang up McKen­na on Jan. 19, just a week af­ter McKen­na had chat­ted with ex­ecs from Mer­ck, along with five oth­er mid- to large-cap phar­ma com­pa­nies at JPM in San Fran­cis­co.

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