Merck & Co. formally completed its $6.7 billion acquisition of Terns Pharmaceuticals on Friday, moving swiftly to announce that TERN-701, the flagship asset driving the deal, will enter a global Phase 3 clinical trial programme within the next six months. The company confirmed the milestone at a briefing for institutional investors held in Rahway, New Jersey, where Merck's chief oncology officer outlined a regulatory strategy targeting both the United States Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency simultaneously.

TERN-701 is a next-generation allosteric BCR-ABL inhibitor designed to overcome treatment resistance in patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia whose disease has progressed through earlier lines of therapy, including asciminib. Analysts at Jefferies and Morgan Stanley had flagged the asset as one of the most clinically compelling CML candidates in late-stage development, citing Phase 2 response rates that exceeded those seen historically with ponatinib while carrying a more manageable cardiovascular side-effect profile.

Merck's oncology leadership said the Phase 3 programme, dubbed TERN-ADVANCE, will enrol approximately 420 patients across sites in North America, Europe, Japan, South Korea and Australia. The primary endpoint is major molecular response at 12 months, with overall survival as a key secondary measure. Patient enrolment is expected to begin at leading haematology centres including MD Anderson Cancer Center, the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, and University Hospital Heidelberg in Germany.

The acquisition also brings Merck a preclinical pipeline of metabolic and liver disease compounds that Terns had been developing independently, though executives were careful to note that these assets remain in early evaluation and will not receive priority resourcing in the near term. The company reiterated its full-year revenue guidance, asserting that the Terns deal is immediately accretive to its oncology pipeline value without materially altering 2026 earnings per share forecasts.

Shares of Merck rose modestly in Friday morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange following the confirmation, with analysts noting that clarity on the Phase 3 design removes a significant uncertainty that had been weighing on market sentiment since the deal was first announced. Patient advocacy groups representing the CML community welcomed the accelerated timeline, with the Leukaemia and Lymphoma Society issuing a statement calling the development 'a meaningful step toward addressing a critical unmet need for patients who have exhausted current standard-of-care options.'