Replies to post #45574 on Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

ML not keen on the MEDI buyout:

http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articlehybrid.aspx?storyID=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20070423:MTFH94703_2...

>>
“It does little to address the weakness in the Phase-3 pipeline and exhausts the company's cash pile for share buybacks and product acquisitions,” Merrill Lynch analysts wrote in a research note.
<<

Here’s a simpler argument: AZN is simply paying too much.

[DewDiligence]

AZN axes 7,300 jobs, forecasts “challenging” 2012:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/02/astrazeneca-idUSL5E8D227D20120202

The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker faces loss of exclusivity on many of its top-selling drugs over the next five years and has few obvious replacements in its pipeline. The antipsychotic medicine Seroquel, its second-biggest drug, will lose exclusivity in the United States in March and also goes off patent in European countries this year.
As a result, Chief Executive David Brennan has been shrinking the business. "The further expected losses of market exclusivity make for a challenging 2012 outlook," he said.

The lack of obvious replacements for products like Seroquel and heartburn treatment Nexium, as well as top-selling heart drug Crestor which goes off patent in 2016, has triggered speculation AstraZeneca may need to make a big acquisition. Following the poorly received purchase of MedImmune in 2007, the company has so far eschewed another large deal. But that strategy could be up for review…

Has any drug/biotech company ever received less value in a $15B cash acquisition than what AZN got for buying MedImmune? I doubt it.

[DewDiligence]

NEXI IPOs 7.44M* shares @$17.00:

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/02/12/2174649/0/en/NexImmune-Announces-Pricing-of-Upsized-Initial-Public-Offering.html

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1538210/000119312521011521/d216127ds1.htm

[NexImmune is] a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a novel approach to immunotherapy designed to employ the body’s own T cells to generate a specific, potent and durable immune response that mimics natural biology. Our mission is to create therapies with curative potential for patients with cancer and other life-threatening immune-mediated diseases. Currently, we have two product candidates in human trials: NEXI-001 in acute myeloid leukemia, or AML, and NEXI-002 in multiple myeloma, or MM.

The backbone of our approach is our proprietary Artificial Immune Modulation, or AIM, nanoparticle technology platform. The AIM technology enables us to construct nanoparticles that function as synthetic dendritic cells capable of directing a specific T cell-mediated immune response. Like natural dendritic cells, the AIM nanoparticles employ natural signaling proteins to deliver specific instructions to specific T cells directing a desired immune response. Importantly, unlike other cell therapy approaches, this is accomplished without any genetic manipulation of the T cell, thereby creating T cell products designed to maintain natural target identification, engagement and killing mechanisms.

It’s not a coincidence that NexImmune is located in Gaithersburg, MD—the senior executives spent time at MedImmune (before and after the AZN buyout).

*Assuming exercise of underwriter’s option.