BioCentury
ARTICLE | Company News

FermaVir, Inhibitex deal

April 16, 2007 7:00 AM UTC

INHX will acquire FMVR in a stock-for-stock transaction. Each FMVR share will be exchanged for 0.55 shares of INHX stock, which values FMVR at about $19 million based on FMVR’s 20.8 million outstanding shares and INHX’s close of $1.66 on April 9, the last trading day before the deal was announced. The deal value is a 43% discount to FMVR’s market cap of $33.3 million on April 9. INHX stockholders will own about 73% of the combined company. INHX also will assume up to 13.9 million outstanding FMVR options and warrants at the same exchange rate. The transaction is expected to close by the end of July. Lazard is advising INHX.

FMVR’s lead product is FV-100, an oral antiviral to treat varicella zoster virus (VZV) infection and is expected to enter Phase I testing next quarter. INHX’s lead product, Aurexis, has completed Phase II trials to treat serious hospital-associated S. aureus bloodstream infections. Development of the MAb against ClfA is on hold while the company decides how it will refocus following a failed Phase III trial of Veronate to prevent hospital-acquired S. aureus infections last year (see BioCentury, April 10, 2006). At Jan. 31, FMVR had about $500,000 in cash. INHX had $20 million at Dec. 31, 2006. ...