Rumors of a Revolution buyout come as the industry gears up for one of its biggest trade conferences, where observers expect many such deals to be announced.
Heading into the 2026 J.P. Morgan Health Conference next week, rumors swirled that Revolution Medicines is on the verge of being acquired, with industry powerhouses Merck and AbbVie named as potential suitors.
Thursday, The Financial Times reported that Merck is in takeover talks with the California biotech, offering anywhere from $28 billion to $32 billion, according to an anonymous source familiar with the matter. Revolution, which is focused on targeted cancer therapies, has a market cap of nearly $20.8 billion.
There are other big pharma companies courting Revolution, The Financial Times added, citing its unnamed sources. Another bidder might prevail over Merck, and there is no guarantee that a transaction will take place.
Shares of Revolution sit at $121 per share in pre-market trading Friday, up 12.7% from its Thursday closing price of $107.39.
The Merck reports come just a day after The Wall Street Journal reported that AbbVie was one of Revolution’s suitors. The pharma has since denied the rumor. Shares of AbbVie dropped 4% to $224.13 at close of trading on Thursday.
Whichever company ultimately snags Revolution—providing one does—will gain a pipeline of targeted drugs for RAS-driven cancers. The biotech’s lead asset daraxonrasib is an orally available selective inhibitor of the RAS protein that targets and disables only the active state of the RAS protein, a key component of cancer cascades. The drug is currently in pivotal development for pancreatic and non-small cell lung cancers.
In September last year, daraxonrasib demonstrated a 29% confirmed objective response rate (ORR) in a Phase I trial for the second-line treatment of patients with pancreatic cancer with RAS mutations. In a separate Phase I study for first-line pancreatic cancer, ORR was 47%. Weeks later, the FDA awarded Revolution a Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher for daraxonrasib, which could drastically shorten its regulatory review.
The Revolution rumors this week come as biopharma gears up for the J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference, widely considered to be the industry’s opening event, where it sets its agenda and goals for the year—and where a flurry of deals are expected to be announced. While Revolution has yet to confirm any potential dealmaking activity at the forum, the company will have a presence at JPM, with a scheduled corporate presentation on Monday morning.
