Health and Healthcare

Why Cascadian Therapeutics Shares Are Skyrocketing

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Cascadian Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: CASC) saw its shares absolutely skyrocket on Wednesday after it was announced that Seattle Genetics Inc. (NASDAQ: SGEN) would be acquiring the company. This is far and away the top-performing stock in Wednesday’s session.

Under the terms of the agreement, Seattle Genetics will pay $10 per share in cash, or roughly $614 million total. This will take place in the form of a tender offer on or about February 8. The transaction was unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies.

Overall this deal represents premiums of 139% and 148%, respectively, from the 50-day and 200-day moving averages of $4.19 and $4.03. So it looks like shareholders are getting a very good deal at this point.

In connection with the transaction, Seattle Genetics has secured a financing commitment in the amount of $400 million from Barclays and JPMorgan Chase Bank, which will be used to help finance the transaction, along with cash on hand.

Cascadian Therapeutics’ most advanced program is tucatinib, and it looks to treat multiple cancers, including breast, colorectal, ovarian and gastric. Clay Siegall, Ph.D., president and CEO of Seattle Genetics, commented more on tucatinib:

This acquisition would enhance our late-stage clinical pipeline with a potentially best-in-class, orally available and highly selective TKI for patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. Tucatinib would complement our existing pipeline of targeted cancer therapies, provide a third late-stage opportunity for a commercial product in solid tumors and expand our global efforts in breast cancer. It also leverages our broad expertise and resources to advance and expand the tucatinib program for patients. Beyond breast cancer, we believe there may be opportunities for tucatinib in other tumor types, such as HER2-positive metastatic colorectal cancer. Cascadian’s pipeline also includes a preclinical immuno-oncology agent. We look forward to welcoming the team at Cascadian Therapeutics and continuing the momentum of the tucatinib development program.

Shares of Cascadian were up about 70% at $10.06 on Wednesday, in a 52-week range of $3.18 to $10.09.

Seattle Genetics was down over 2% at $53.74 a share, with a consensus analyst price target of $64.71 and a 52-week range of $45.31 to $71.32.

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