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Poolbeg Pharma PLC on Thursday said it was holding talks over an all-share combination with US-listed biopharmaceutical company Hookipa Pharma Inc.
Under the proposed terms, shareholders in the London-based clinical stage biopharmaceutical firm would receive 0.03 Hookipa shares for each Poolbeg share. This would leave Poolbeg with 55% of the enlarged company with co-founder Cathal Friel becoming executive chair.
Hookipa plans a $30 million fundraise on completion of the deal. This would dilute Poolbeg’s stake in the combined firm to just over 40%, with Hookipa holding around 33% and new investors about 27%.
Poolbeg is expected to become a private subsidiary of Hookipa and apply for the cancellation of its shares to trading on AIM. Hookipa, which is based in New York and Austria, intends to retain its listing on the Nasdaq capital market.
Shares in Poolbeg were 36% lower at 4.58 pence each in London on Thursday morning. It has a market value of £22.9 million.
In New York, shares in Hookipa are 17% higher in pre-market trading. On Tuesday, shares closed at $2.01 for a market value of $24.2 million.
Talks are ‘non-binding’ and ‘non-exclusive’, and dependent on the satisfactory completion of customary due diligence, the two firms said in a statement.
The combination would create a ‘strong clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercialising innovative medicines for critical unmet medical needs, with a special focus on next-generation immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer and other serious diseases,’ both firms stated.
Poolbeg and Hookipa expect the combination to bolster near-term clinical data catalysts, with clinical data expected across multiple programmes over the next 24-months.
The combined group would also have two partnered programmes with Gilead Sciences Inc, offering the potential of ‘significant’ development and commercialisation milestones in addition to ‘significant’ sales royalties.
Hookipa is expected to retain 55% of the milestone payments made by Gilead for the HB-400 and HB-500 programmes (which could be worth up to $407.5 million) and 80% of proceeds generated by the HB-200 programme.
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