Can Celladon Turn Itself Around With Its New Plan?

Celladon announced that its board of directors unanimously approved a strategic plan to pursue either an acquisition or a partnership. As part of this plan, the company retained Wedbush PacGrow Healthcare as its financial advisor.

Along with this plan in the works, Celladon did a little housecleaning as well. Paul Cleveland was promoted to chief executive and appointed to its board of directors, effective immediately. The previous CEO, Krisztina Zsebo, Ph.D., resigned from the company and its board of directors. After his vote in favor of these decisions, Patrick Yang, Ph.D., also resigned from the board. In addition, Andrew Jackson, the company’s corporate controller, was named chief financial officer.

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Looking at the range of Celladon shares, it has absolutely fallen off a cliff in just the past few months alone. The stock has a 52-week trading range of $2.01 to $28.25, with the high set back in March and the low just two months later. Just one year ago, this was an $8 stock, which made its climb over the next 10 months to its high, but this level was not sustainable. At the current price level, shares have dropped over 90% since March. At this point, the only reasonable plan to stop the bleeding for this biotech is acquisition.

Michael Narachi, chair of Celladon’s board, commented on these plans:

We have unanimously determined that seeking an acquisition or partnership gives us the best opportunity to maximize shareholder value, and to that end we have retained Wedbush PacGrow Healthcare as exclusive financial advisor to the company and Board. In addition, with today’s leadership announcement we enable a smooth transition to a proven executive in Paul Cleveland. We have the highest degree of confidence in Paul’s leadership as we commence the process to seek an acquisition or partnership.

Considering shares are near an all-time low — way below its IPO price of $8.00, but it entered the market at $9.90 — it would appear that the board of directors is looking to get back some of their investment. At this level, anyone who bought and held shares of Celladon, prior to April 24, 2015, is deeply underwater.

Monday morning, shares of Celladon were up 4.8% at $2.42, above the consensus analyst price target of $2.33.

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