BridgeBio has welcomed Eidos Therapeutics back into the fold through a definitive merger agreement that allows BridgeBio to acquire approximately 36.3% of Eidos’ outstanding common stock it does not already own. The agreement culminates to a deal valued at up to an aggregate maximum of $175 million.
The transaction between BridgeBio and Eidos is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021. Additionally, BridgeBio stated it will fund the cash consideration with cash on hand. Eidos, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, will become a wholly-owned BridgeBio subsidiary, and all independent Eidos stock will stop trading on The Nasdaq Global Select Market upon closing.
The finalization of this deal follows a long road for BridgeBio, a genetic diseases company focused on targeted therapies, in its interest to acquire shares in Eidos. In August 2019, BridgeBio submitted a non-binding proposal to purchase all outstanding common stock of Eidos. After one month of consideration and consultation with independent financial and legal advisors, however, Eidos officially announced its Board of Directors had unanimously rejected the proposal.
Rejection of the proposal led BridgeBio to increase its initial offer of 1.3 BridgeBio shares for each Eidos share to 1.5 BridgeBio shares to each Eidos share. But by October 2019, the two companies terminated the merger process.
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Fast-forward to one year later, this new agreement between the two companies will provide Eidos stockholders with the right to either 1.85 shares of BridgeBio common stock or $73.26 in cash per Eidos share.
This new acquisition will undoubtedly expand BridgeBio’s cardiorenal portfolio. Under the new merger, Eidos will be able to further advance its development of acoramidis for the treatment of ATTR cardiomyopathy and polyneuropathy. Eidos will utilize BridgeBio’s “discover, create, test and deliver platform” as well as the genetic diseases company’s global clinical development and regulatory expertise to advance research into the potential best-in-class TTR stabilizer.
“ATTR is a rapidly progressive and fatal disease when left untreated, so we know that every moment counts for the patients and families we aim to serve,” BridgeBio’s senior vice president of cardiorenal disease, Cameron Turtle, D.Phil., said in a statement. “With Eidos fully reunited with BridgeBio, we intend to move as quickly as possible to advance acoramidis through the development process and, if approved, into the marketplace.”
“Bringing Eidos fully back to BridgeBio positions us to invest in all opportunities around acoramidis, including subsequent studies to potentially broaden the evidence for its usage, and accelerate its commercial development using BridgeBio’s established infrastructure,” according to a statement made by Neil Kumar, Ph.D., founder and CEO of BridgeBio and CEO of Eidos. “We are excited to welcome acoramidis back into an ecosystem where cutting-edge science is being done across inherited diseases and targeted oncology.”
In September, Eidos completed the screening phase of its pivotal multicenter, international Phase III ATTRibute-CM study for acoramidis in patients with ATTR cardiomyopathy.
“With the completion of screening in the Phase III ATTRibute-CM study of acoramidis and expected enrollment of more than 600 participants, now is the time to begin laying the groundwork for a global launch,” Kumar said. “This transaction removes the operational complexity of the current ownership structure and allows us to fully unlock the potential of this investigational medicine for patients and investors.”
Source: Biospace
