In an interview with Bloomberg published yesterday, Sage’s CEO Jeff Jonas was quoted as saying his company was at the top of everyone’s buying list, sending its shares jumping.
But a few short hours later (and just before the end of after-hours trading), the chief rowed back on the M&A talk.
This comes as the company also got a share boost after its major depressive disorder candidate SAGE-217 recently hit its marks in a small, phase 2 test.
Bloomberg got an interview with Jonas about the data, where he said Sage was “on top of everyone’s M&A list,’’ and has been “hearing a great deal from a lot of companies,” an uncommon mantra from a biotech CEO, especially after a relatively small trial win, but with much more to be done.
But markets like these words, so cue its shares up by 9% in normal trading hours on the news. But later yesterday evening, the company released a statement trying to lower the tone of these comments.
“Dr. Jonas acknowledged the industry’s interest in the MDD data,” the brief update said. “Dr. Jonas’ statements did not imply that the company was in discussions with potential buyers […] Sage will have no further comment on these matters and as a policy does not comment on speculation regarding M&A activities.”
Its shares fell 1.2% afterhours, with its biggest dip coming after the release of this statement, and was down around 5% premarket this morning.
By Ben Adams
Source: Fierce Biotech
The companies will explore opportunities to apply Flagship’s innovative bioplatforms – an ecosystem that currently comprises 41 companies – to scientific challenges in disease areas within cardiometabolic and rare diseases and initiate research programmes based on these.
BD is expanding its long-running partnership with the blood collection company Babson Diagnostics. The two companies have been working together since 2019 on a device that can gather small volumes of blood from the capillaries in the fingertip without requiring any specialized training, and beginning with a focus on supporting primary care in retail settings.
Wednesday, Australian biotech CSL said (PDF) the regulatory review of its $11.7 billion acquisition of Switzerland’s Vifor Pharma will take “a few more months,” suggesting it won’t be able to close the transaction by June 2022 as previously expected.
