Given the recent softening in the shares of uniQure (QURE), now may be the time to buy into the rumored takeover target.
The stock price of the Amsterdam-based biotechnology firm was up to more than $82 in mid-June, when buyout speculation was hot and heavy. Since then, the shares have fallen to $67. That’s still well above their 52-week low of $22, so many longer-terms investors have already pocketed a bundle. If anything, the drop in its market cap to $2.5 billion certainly makes the company more affordable for an acquirer.
It may be attractive to investors for the same reason: It’s cheaper. Therefore, latecomers may still be able to cash in. There’s no information out there to suggest uniQure has become less desirable or that the company’s interest in a marriage has cooled.
Prior to the takeover rumors emerging, the company’s boost in stock price appears to have been driven by good clinical tests for its promising hemophilia drug
The drug continued to maintain clinically significant increases in clotting factor IX six months after its administration in three patients enrolled in uniQure’s Phase 2b trial, according to Hemophilia News Today. About 20% of hemophilia patients have a deficiency of clotting factor IX, and replacement therapy can cost about $270,000 a year and up to $1 million if complications result in hospitalization.
The number of people with hemophilia in the U.S. is estimated to be about 20,000, according to the National Hemophilia Foundation. Solid figures aren’t available for incidence worldwide, but estimates put it at 40,000. About three of every four people with hemophilia receive less than optimum treatment or none at all.
Roche (OTCPK:RHHBF) certainly likes the opportunities in the hemophilia market. In February the company entered into a merger agreement to acquire privately held Spark Therapeutics in a $4.3 billion deal. The agreement has been held up by Federal Trade Commission antitrust concerns. The delay has caused Roche and Spark to push back the deadline to close the deal from Jan. 31, 2020, to April 30, 2020. If the acquisition isn’t finalized by the new date, the companies can call off the merger.
Spark's gene therapy program will make a nice addition to the Roche hemophilia franchise. The Roche Hemlibra treatment is already going gangbusters, with first-quarter sales equaling the total for all of 2019. This gain was due in great part to approval to market the drug to a larger patient population. Hemlibra offers bleed protection for people with hemophila A with or without factor VIII inhibitors. Hemophilia A is the most commont type of the disease.
The depth of Roche’s hemophilia program was on display at the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostatsis meeting in Melbourne, according to FiercePharma. The company presented 21 abstracts, including data from four pivotal trials of Hemlibra, which showed the drug’s long-term safety and efficacy benefits.
So which companies might take a run at uniQure? Among those mentioned are Novo Nordisk (NVO) Pfizer (PFE) and Sanofi (SNY).
Disclosure: The author holds no positions in any of the stocks mentioned.
Read more here:
Amarin Thinks Sales of Its Cardio Drug Could Be in the Billions
Biohaven Offering Seems to Make Sale Less Likely
Livongo Leading Digital Health Charge Back Into Public Market
Not a Premium Member of GuruFocus? Sign up for a free 7-day trial here.
