Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp. (NASDAQ: TKMR), in conjunction with OnCore Biopharma, announced that they have agreed to merge and create a new global hepatitis B virus (HBV) company. The focus of this new company will be to develop a curative regimen for hepatitis B patients by combining their multiple therapeutic approaches. It was not too long ago that Tekmira made its name in the biopharma industry during the Ebola scare, seeing its shares soar to new 52-week highs.
The newly combined pipeline will target the three pillars necessary to develop a curative regimen for hepatitis B. This includes assets focused on suppressing HBV replication, reactivating and stimulating the host immune response directed at HBV and eliminating covalently closed circular DNA.
The CEO of Tekmira, Mark Murray, commented on the merger and the outlook:
Our new company has the potential to advance multiple, highly active, complementary agents into the clinic in rapid succession, and create an HBV therapeutics powerhouse, thereby potentially offering significant benefits to the global medical community working to improve the lives of HBV patients.
According to the press release, the terms of the agreement were:
The transaction will be carried out by way of a merger pursuant to which OnCore will merge with a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tekmira and thereby become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tekmira. Upon closing of the transaction the stockholders of OnCore will hold approximately fifty percent (50%) of the total number of outstanding shares of capital stock of Tekmira, calculated on a fully-diluted and as-converted basis using the treasury stock method.
Tekmira will continue to develop its non-HBV pipeline as it focuses on the RNA interference therapeutics. It already has a diverse pipeline that treats serious human diseases such as cancer and viral infections, including Ebola.
With this merger being focused around hepatitis B to the point that it was named handily throughout the press release, shares of Tekmira were up 38% at $21.68 in the first two hours of trading. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $29.29 and a 52-week trading range of $8.86 to $31.48.
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