Versartis, Inc. (VSAR)

[sportd]

Lots of form 4’s came thru on the 22nd.

[riverterracekrew]

He didn't buy them directly he bought them indirectly through his venture capital fund. Usually venture caps are high risk/high reward type purchases which explains why it was so many shares . read the filing carefully

[sportd]

Can’t figure out the trading here, why would director keep buying like he catching a falling knife. Wouldn’t he be in the know but damn he has had some bad trades here but I guess he keeps avg down

[RisingProfit]

Director Akkaraju Srinivas purchased 976,467 shares.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1253170/000120919117064066/xslF345X03/doc4.xml

[OTC_Buyer]

Unsure but if so that is a good sign

[RisingProfit]

Didn´t a director of VSAR purchase 1M shares recently?

[OTC_Buyer]

Whatever makes it goes up I am down for. Didn’t think it was going to take this long actually on this play. I mean results were great ... it worked ... bad they compared apples to oranges on their studies to make us look bad though. Compare Apple to Apple and who knows we could be back at original price if not higher before the plummet?

[RisingProfit]

Maybe someone buys VSAR.

[OTC_Buyer]

$2.75 and I won’t be red anymore at least LOL

[RisingProfit]

First it has to rise to $3.

[OTC_Buyer]

I will take it

[risk101]

Target set at $7.22 https://sportsperspectives.com/2017/12/17/brokerages-set-versartis-inc-vsar-target-price-at-7-22.html

[riverterracekrew]

Have a feeling that monday is news. Hold tight boys

[ERICBOCKEM]

Excellent hypothesis. I get the feeling that we will be finding out within the next three months.

[naturalborninvestor]

Trade went through just after the close. Most likely pre-arranged.

[sportd]

Was anyone on L2 at the time, that kind of volume dumped should have killed it and doesn’t look so

[naturalborninvestor]

what if it's not luck, but predictable anticipation that the stock would be removed from the biotech sub-sector index after its sudden drop in October? Insiders may have postponed any news just to fully capitalize on this situation before a possible announcement.

[ERICBOCKEM]

Haha—my exact thoughts. Timing is everything in the stock market and sometimes it’s out of your control. Either going to be some extremely lucky buyers or some exceedingly lucky sellers. Time will tell my friend!!!!

[naturalborninvestor]

Wouldn't be surprised to see more insider filings. What an interesting setup! There may be funds forced to sell to mimic the benchmark reconstitution, while insiders are loading for a corporate transaction.

[ERICBOCKEM]

Could be wrong but it might be the Re balancing of the biotech index. The time frame jives: https://seekingalpha.com/amp/news/3317422-nasdaq-biotech-index-54-added-15-removed

[sportd]

Showing a million dumped at the bid at close and more in AH

[naturalborninvestor]

A 1.2 million share trade to me looks like a prearranged deal

[vino00]

What do you make of todays eod volume?

[BluSkies]

Getting there

[sportd]

Nice buys this am! $vsar

[BluSkies]

If VSAR is still a valuable reverse merger / acquisition candidate - depending on the reverse merger take over, would 2017 sound better for tax purposes?

[BluSkies]

We believe the large size of the market, its current fragmentation with many large pharma players, and the introduction of a new extended-release technology will set Versartis up to be an attractive takeover target in the future. Given that Novo Nordisk (manufacturer of norditropin) and Pfizer (manufacturer of genotropin) both have next generation, long-acting GH product candidates, the remaining companies in the space will likely be actively looking for their own long-acting GH product to maintain some market share. Therefore, Eli Lilly, Sandoz, Merck KGaA, or Roche seem more likely buyers should somavaratan prove successful.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/seekingalpha.com/amp/article/4107627-versartis-expect-growth-ahead

[longx]

Given institution holding is still at 49%, I think the reasonable buyout price should be above $3.25 and could be as high as $5/share.

[longx]

Completely agree with you on a merger or acquisition is the most likely outcome.

BTW, the insider, Dr. Srini Akkaraju, M.D., Ph.D., who acquired almost 1M shares over a week ago, is actually the primary founder of Samsara BioCapital, an Biotech investment firm just filed with SEC in March/2017 with an initial $300M capital. Detailed info can be found via this link
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1699737/000169973717000003/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml

Prior to the crash BioCapital/Dr. Srini Akkaraju had already invested $14M in Versartis (purchased almost 1.5M shares at $12.25). With the doctor's medical background, I think the investor should have a very good knowledge about Somavaratan and decided to put that large amount of money in Versartis. And with the recent purchases, there is a high chance that BioCapital will acquire VSAR.

Also some other Samsara initial investments:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170421005129/en/Syros-Announces-35-Million-Private-Placement

GLTA

[sportd]

What’s a realized buyout price you think if it happens

[longx]

By hiring Cowen, they're definitely working hard in getting the company sold given the possibility of Somavaratan to be optimized (w.r.t. dosage/frequent-usge) to meet all targets. Closing down shop, distributing the cash is the last option and they're NOT going to let it happen.

[naturalborninvestor]

Looking for another form 4 as confirmation. That 730k pre market share trade from a few days ago has not been reported yet by any insider. Hope it will.

[naturalborninvestor]

There are several more options, including resubmission at a higher dosage or buying revenues in an adjacent field. But a merger or acquisition is the most likely outcome. The drug certainly has value. Insiders had not put up in excess of $2 million through open market purchases if they expected this to just go out of business.

[sportd]

2 outcomes here, buyout or close down shop since you can’t run since eliminating 2/3 of workforce. Don’t they just have this drug in their pipeline and nothing else?

[longx]

Problem is cash burn rate and how long can they keep the lights on.

Cash burn should no longer be an issue as they mentioned in Q3 Corporate Update that they had reduced 2/3 force force and eliminated majority of management position (see below)

I think they're in the middle of getting the company sold to private investment group for further development.

Keep in mind that Somavaratan missed its primary endpoint and failed to prove non-inferior to Pfizer’s Genotropin as patients with twice-monthly Somavaratan grew 9.44 centimeters per year against daily Genotropin’s 10.70 centimeters. Beside that Ascendis's TransCon Growth Hormone is injected once-weekly. There is a possibility of de-designing Somavaratan phase-3 clinical trial for the drug to be administered at a higher dose or more frequently (such as weekly like TransCon Growth rather than the current bi-month) for achieving the range of activity to demonstrate non-inferiority.

With this I decided to start with 50K shares this morning.

Corporate Update

- Completed reduction in work force of approximately two thirds and further cost-cutting measures underway to preserve cash
- Select members of management team retained to leverage clinical, regulatory, and commercial expertise in the evaluation of somavaratan and efforts to identify opportunities to diversify the Versartis pipeline
- Cowen engaged to assist in evaluating possible strategic transactions that could maximize the company's expertise and resources

[sportd]

Problem is cash burn rate and how long can they keep the lights on.

[sportd]

I saw the buys EOD

[loup]

added more shares today at these levels they have cash in investments

a superior product in many ways to those currently available

think this is the best investment in the market just committed a quarter of a million dollars to

this stock not the millions by the current board member at 2.17 per share but a sizable investment

[naturalborninvestor]

Tide is turning again. Good time to add.

[sportd]

Damn glad I sold all at 2.25. Wtf is going on here. Was looking so good for a few days

[BluSkies]

My lotto tix is not looking to good.

[sportd]

The ask is stacked! Need this to dip to 1.90 to recharge its batteries

[BluSkies]

A lot of accumulation going on at these levels

[loup]

this is what happened to a stock we owned teneco ten ticker symbol was buying at 2.00 per shar went down to a 1.60 now above 50 dollars per share but it took afew years. i got out too early owned about 500 thousand shares sold at abou 6.00 a share - will not make same mistake with this stock buying and holding more shares

[BluSkies]

Need some power here what happen?

[sportd]

Downward pressure today

[stock1ace1]

VSAR $2.25

[BluSkies]

Nice thing about cash in the bank for a high burn rate operation is there might not be any dilution to fund trials anytime soon, I hope....

[sportd]

Lots of ownership

https://www.dispatchtribunal.com/2017/12/05/srinivas-akkaraju-buys-419700-shares-of-versartis-inc-vsar-stock.html

[BluSkies]

Estimated Primary Completion Date: March 2018

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02068521