Surface accepts buyout; deal helps Coherus build innovative pipeline

With its share price languishing, Surface Oncology has chosen to accept an all-stock buyout offer from Coherus that values its business at $40 million, plus cash. The deal gives biosimilars maker Coherus two clinical programs to build its innovative cancer pipeline behind PD-1 inhibitor toripalimab, to which it holds U.S. rights.

Pending the deal’s closing, it will end the nine-year run of Surface Oncology Inc. (NASDAQ:SURF) as a standalone company. Founded in 2014 and backed by Atlas Venture and other VCs, Surface sought to develop immunotherapies beyond the first wave of checkpoint inhibitors, some of which were just reaching the market when the company was established...