Idera Pharmaceuticals Inc (IDRA)

[ajsmith]

The nice (and very bullish) thing about the warrants is that they're essentially illiquid. Baker Brothers have contractually agreed to stay under the 5% ownership level, and the warrants (which, if exercised, would give then better than 40% ownership) allow them to do that, while taking a much larger stake.

I believe that the deal is that if Baker Brothers wants to exercise warrants that would take them over 5%, they need to give the company 60 days written notice, and even then, at no point will they be allowed to exercise warrants that would bring them over 19.99% beneficial ownership.

This is about a very large and very savvy holder looking to grab as much IDRA as possible, and a very confident, very savvy board making sure that they don't get acquired before they fulfill their promise.

The fact that BB has locked itself into (remember the warrants are largely pre-funded) what is now around a $180 million investment in this small biotech with very little in the way of an escape hatch is mind-bogglingly bullish, IMO. I have a feeling that they believe there's some science here.