Freshfields and Latham & Watkins have been called in for Merck’s acquisition of Verona Pharma, in a deal that underscores Freshfields’ US M&A ambitions.
Latham is acting for London-headquartered Verona on the deal while Freshfields is guiding Merck, which has turned to US firms including Paul Weiss and Ropes & Gray in the past for multi-billion-dollar acquisitions.
The Freshfields team steering Merck is led by corporate partners Damien Zoubek and Jenny Hochenberg from New York and Rhys Evans and Kate Cooper in London. Zoubek and Hochenberg joined the firm from storied New York firm Cravath Swaine & Moore as part of a concerted US hiring drive that has seen it add around 50 top partners across a range of practices since 2019.
The effort appears to be paying off – last year Johnson & Johnson turned to Freshfields over its usual choice Cravath for its $13bn acquisition of medical device-maker Shockwave Medical, with the team led by Zoubek, Hochenberg and Sanjay Murti, another Cravath recruit.
Meanwhile, the Latham team guiding Verona was led by corporate partners Peter Handrinos (Boston/New York), Scott Shean (Orange County), Sam Newhouse (London) and Douglas Abernethy (London).
Last year, a Latham team also guided Verona on its $650m strategic financing led by Oaktree, while back in 2020 Handrinos led the Latham team that steered Verona’s $200m private placement and subscription.
Merck’s acquisition of Verona will see it gain a promising respiratory treatment ahead of key patents for its top-selling drug Keytruda beginning to expire in 2028.
Reuters reported that Merck expects multibillion-dollar annual revenue by the mid-2030s from Verona’s Ohtuvayre, which was recently approved to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, commonly known as “smoker’s lung”.
Merck will acquire Verona Pharma for $107 per American depository share, a premium of 23% to the company’s last close on the Nasdaq, according to Reuters.
The acquisition is the pharma giant’s largest since its $10.8bn buy of Prometheus Biosciences in 2023. Merck called in Paul Weiss for counsel on that deal, having turned to Covington & Burling and Ropes & Gray in 2021 when it acquired Acceleron for $11.5bn, which brought it the pulmonary arterial hypertension drug Winrevair.
Winning large US deals has helped Freshfields rise up the global M&A rankings. The firm is consistently among the top 10 by deal value, ahead of its UK Magic Circle rivals and some leading US firms, including Cravath and Cleary – another source of star talent.
Freshfields was placed sixth last year in the London Stock Exchange Group’s rankings and seventh in H1 2025 after advising on 104 deals worth $166.7bn.
However, it is still some way off global M&A heavyweights like Kirkland & Ellis, Wachtell and Latham, which topped the H1 rankings after working on 380 deals worth $277.4bn.
Citi and Morgan Stanley are acting as financial advisors to Merck in the transaction and Centerview Partners is acting as exclusive financial advisor to Verona Pharma.
Email your news and story ideas to: [email protected]
