The acquisition of rights to vernakalant by Merck and Co. Inc. is being greeted as a vote of confidence by investors of Cardiome Pharma Corp. The price of shares in the Vancouver, British Columbia-based company surged more than 28 percent Tuesday after it announced that it was transferring rights for development and commercialization of the drug in North America from Astellas US LLC, a subsidiary of Astellas Pharma Inc., of Tokyo, to Merck, which already had rights in other parts of the world.