AUS
NZ
UK
CA
USA
IND
Highlights:
- The US stock soared over 86 per cent in the morning trading on Tuesday, October 18.
- The company announced an acquisition deal on Tuesday.
- The acquisition deal would value around US$ 487 million.
The stocks of the biotechnology company, Akouos, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKUS) gained significant traction in the morning trading hours on October 18, as seen by the considerable jump in its prices.
The company's stock rose more than 86 per cent soon after the market opened on Tuesday after the healthcare company announced an acquisition deal with another major healthcare company on October 18.
Let's take a closer look at the acquisition deal and see the key details of the agreement.
What's in the deal?
Akouos is a precision genetic medicinal firm aiming to develop gene therapeutics that potentially treat hearing disorders.
The Boston, Massachusetts-based healthcare firm claims to work on a portfolio of first-in-class adeno-associated viral gene therapeutics to treat patients with inner ear conditions like sensorineural hearing disorders, etc.
Akouos unveiled a definitive agreement on October 18, under which the leading pharmaceutical firm by market cap, Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY), would acquire it.
According to the company release for the deal, the US$ 316.37 billion market cap pharmaceutical company would acquire all the outstanding shares of Akouos for US$ 12.5 per share in cash, along with one contingent value right (CVR) of as much as US$ 3 apiece. Both the board of the companies have nodded to the deal.
Eli Lilly would commence a tender for acquiring all the outstanding shares of Akouos for the price mentioned above, which would value around US$ 487 million. The amount would be payable at closing and one non-tradeable CVR per share.
The acquisition price represents a premium of around 121 per cent of the 30-day volume-weighted average share price of AKUS stock through Monday, October 17.
Source: ©Kalkine Media®; © Canva via Canva.com
Bottom line:
The price of the AKUS stock climbed up 86.88 per cent at 9:40 am ET on October 18 to trade at US$ 13.1, while its trading volume was over 8.20 million at that time. The stock of the healthcare firm closed at US$ 7.01 in the prior session.
The US$ 480.96 million market cap company announced in mid-September that it had received clearance from the FDA for its Investigational New Drug application for initiating Phase 1/2, the pediatric clinical trial of AK-OTOF. It is a gene therapy intended to treat patients suffering from otoferlin gene-mediated hearing loss.
