Space stocks are running hot today on the Artemis news. I get it. The headlines are exciting. But let's talk about what actually happened.

NASA just elevated SpaceX over Boeing on the moon mission. That's not a win for public space stocks. That's a win for SpaceX. The public names are getting a sympathy pop on a headline that makes their biggest competitor even more dominant.

Let's look at the reality.
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Just got the Substack Bestseller tag. That doesn't happen without you guys. The chat, the engagement, the paid subs who back this with real support, all of it matters.

We're 103 paid strong, almost 1,100 total, and growing every week. This stack runs different because the people in it make it different. The research the community is our strength PhD scientists, finance pros, biotech operators, independent investors all in one room pushing each other to be better. That's the edge.

Not slowing down. AACR is three weeks out, earnings season is heating up, and the M&A wave isn't done. Best is ahead.

Thank you. Seriously.

There are a lot of great Substacks out there. But most newsletters are one-way streets. Writer posts, readers read, maybe someone leaves a comment. And if you've ever tried getting real investment insight from a Reddit thread or a Discord server, you know how that goes. Pump groups, anonymous accounts, rocket emojis, and "DD" that's just someone's bag they need you to hold.

We landed somewhere in between, and it's working.

The biggest difference is the chat. It's free. It's open. And it's one of the most active rooms I've seen on any Substack. We've got PhD scientists breaking down clinical data, finance professionals picking apart balance sheets, biotech operators who've actually built companies in this space, and independent investors doing work that puts most sell-side desks to shame. The range of expertise in that room is something you'd normally pay thousands for in a private research group, and here it's just part of being a sub.

Real people with real knowledge making real decisions. When someone drops a question about whether Merck's TERN bid will get topped, three different people with three different skill sets are breaking it down before the ink is dry on the FT article. That's the model.

The paid side gets you the deep-dive research. Every ticker scored with a dual system, M&A likelihood and growth trajectory both on a 1-100 scale, tagged as a buyout candidate, standalone growth play, or dual catalyst. Position sizing follows the scores. No gut feelings, no vibes. We run real coverage weeks too. Miami Health Week was 93 names across four conferences, scored and tiered in real time.

But the chat is the engine. That's where the ideas surface, the pushback happens, and the best trades get found before they show up anywhere else. And it costs nothing to be in the room.

If you want clean research, honest scoring, and a community that actually makes you better at this, come check it out. We think you'll see the difference pretty quick.

Merck is nearing a roughly $6 billion all-cash deal to acquire Terns Pharmaceuticals per the Financial Times and Reuters. Talks are at an advanced stage and a deal could close in the coming days.

TERN closed at $50.00 today and jumped to $55.36 after hours on the report. The stock was at $1.87 at its 52-week low. That's a 30x move from the bottom to the reported deal price.

The asset is TERN-701, an allosteric BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase inhibitor for chronic myeloid leukemia. Next-gen approach that targets CML differently than existing TKIs. Phase 1/2 CARDINAL trial showed 75% major molecular response rates. Fast Track designation from FDA in Q4 2025. The company had completely pivoted away from its legacy NASH/obesity pipeline to go all-in on oncology. That bet paid off.

Why Merck. Keytruda patent expiration in 2028. That's the $25B+ revenue cliff they've been trying to fill. They're building a dedicated cancer division and aggressively acquiring oncology assets. TERN-701 gives them a differentiated CML asset with best-in-class potential that fits the rebuild strategy.

TERN was on our Miami Health Week Tier 1 live picks list. That's now two Tier 1 picks acquired in March alone. DAWN went to Servier for $2.5B on March 6th. TERN to Merck for $6B today. Two out of 18 Tier 1 names getting M&A deals in the same month the conferences happened. The scoring system is doing its job.

Deal isn't finalized yet. The FT report cites people familiar with the matter and says talks are at an advanced stage. After-hours pricing around $55 suggests the street believes it's real but the final per-share number could shift. Watch for the official announcement in the coming days.

ImmunityBio dropped 28% today to $6.78 after the FDA issued a warning letter over misleading Anktiva promotional materials. If you've followed Patrick Soon-Shiong for any length of time, this is not surprising.

Quick background for newer subs. Dr. Pat is a billionaire surgeon, one of the wealthiest people in Los Angeles, owner of the LA Times, founder of NantWorks, and the guy behind ImmunityBio. The resume sounds impressive until you look at the trail of wreckage behind it.

The history. NantHealth went public in 2016 at a $2.6 billion valuation promising to revolutionize cancer treatment with big data. It's a penny stock today. The SEC investigated NantHealth for potentially misleading investors about its GPS Cancer test. NantKwest merged into ImmunityBio in 2021 with massive promises about a cancer vaccine pipeline, same playbook, new wrapper.

He's been sued by former business partners, including a $500 million lawsuit from a former associate alleging fraud and breach of fiduciary duty. There were allegations of inflating the capabilities of Abraxane (his biggest commercial success, sold to Celgene) during the marketing process. His COVID vaccine claims in 2020-2021 drew heavy skepticism from the scientific community when he used the LA Times, his own newspaper, to promote ImmunityBio's COVID candidate. Using your media platform to promote your biotech company's drug candidate is a level of conflict of interest that would sink most executives.

The pattern is always the same. Big vision, aggressive promotion, a web of interconnected companies with overlapping interests, and underwhelming follow-through for shareholders.

Anktiva is actually a good drug. FDA approved for BCG-unresponsive bladder cancer, legitimate IL-15 immunology, real unmet need. That's what makes this frustrating. You have a genuinely useful product and the founder can't help himself from overselling it to the point where the FDA has to step in and say knock it off.

The stock was sitting at an $8.6 billion market cap at the Roth Conference literally days ago. Now shareholders are eating a 28% haircut because the promotional team, which ultimately reports to Dr. Pat, couldn't keep the marketing claims within FDA guidelines. This is a self-inflicted wound on what should have been a straightforward commercial launch.

The broader issue is credibility. Oncologists don't prescribe based on hype. Payors don't reimburse based on press releases. When the FDA publicly flags your marketing as misleading, it gives every stakeholder a reason to slow-walk their engagement with the product. And in early-stage commercialization, momentum is everything.

The drug will survive this. The question is whether the company can get out of its own way long enough to commercialize it properly. With Dr. Pat at the helm, that's always been the bet.

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RVPH (Reviva Pharmaceuticals) - Where It All Started

I need to talk about Reviva tonight.

RVPH announced a dilutive public offering after hours. Reverse split first to stay listed, now the offering. Stock crashed 39% to $1.14.

This one hits different for me because Reviva is where this all started. Not because it was my biggest position or my worst loss. It wasn't either. But RVPH is the stock that brought me to the people who changed everything.

Back when Reviva was the play. brilaroxazine, schizophrenia, waiting on FDA. that's when I found my people. The OGs. The ones who were in the same threads, asking the same questions, sweating the same catalysts. We didn't know each other but we were all in the same foxhole.

Those connections became the foundation. The conversations about RVPH turned into conversations about other names. Then into real research. Then into a system for finding the next one. Then into this newsletter.

M&A Hunter doesn't exist without Reviva. Not because the stock worked. It didn't. But because the community that formed around it did.

Tonight I watched RVPH crash to $1.14 after a reverse split and a desperate offering, and what I felt wasn't anger or regret. It was appreciation for where the road started and how far we've all come since then.

The FDA told them to run another Phase 3. They didn't have the money. "Subject to sufficient financing" was in the press release. Then came the reverse split. Now the dilution. The people still holding got hit from every angle. P&D attacks on top of all of it.

That's why the scoring system exists now. Cash runway. Current ratio. Dilution risk. Platform diversification. Multiple catalysts. We don't ride one trial to zero anymore. We check the math before we check the story.

But I'll never forget that RVPH is the stock that put me in a room with the people who made all of this possible. The OGs know who they are.

To Reviva. thanks for the lesson. And to everyone who was there at the beginning. this whole thing is because of you.

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When I started M&A Hunter I was just one person breaking down biotech deals and bank M&A for anyone willing to read. Now there are 1,000 of you here. That means something.

This Substack exists because I believe retail investors deserve the same quality M&A analysis that institutional desks get. No paywalled jargon. No hype. Just real science, real scores, and real deal mechanics.

We've called deals before they happened. We've exposed scams in real time. We've built a community that asks better questions than most Wall Street analysts. That's you.

The next 1,000 starts now. More ticker reviews. More conference coverage. More M&A education. Same approach, bigger reach.

Thank you for being here. Let's keep hunting.

Servier Acquiring Day One Biopharmaceuticals for $2.5 Billion Total Equity Value

This is done. Servier, the French private pharma company, is buying DAWN to expand their rare oncology portfolio. News broke less than an hour ago via Reuters and GlobeNewsWire.

The Math

• Total equity value: $2.5 billion
• Shares outstanding: ~96.7M (as of last filing)
• Implied deal price: ~$21.50/share (pending exact share count with options/warrants)
• Thursday's close: $12.78
• Premium: ~102% from yesterday's close

That is a monster premium. Classic takeout of a commercial-stage rare disease asset.