Merck & Co., Inc. ($Merck & Co., Inc. MRK$) shares jumped 4.37% to US$131 pre-market as od 16:21, March 27, GMT+8, with the stock poised to reach a new all-time high after opening.

The surge follows the approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Merck's sotatercept, a treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a rare lung disease. The medication, set to be marketed as Winrevair, is reportedly priced at US$14,000 per vial without insurance, with most patients expected to use one vial every three weeks, amounting to an estimated yearly cost of around US$242,000.