Gene therapy developers rise on Astellas' $3 bln deal for Audentes

Orchard Therapeutics

03/12/2019 13:28

** Shares of gene therapy developers rise after Japan's
Astellas Pharma Inc  4503.T  announces ~$3 bln cash deal for
Audentes Therapeutics Inc  BOLD.O 
    ** Deal of $60 per share for San Francisco-based Audentes
represents a 110% premium to its closing price on Monday; BOLD
shares more than double to $59.25 premarket  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N28C4BM
    ** Analysts say the deal could have positive implications
for other gene therapy drug developers  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N28D2MK
    ** Sangamo Therapeutics  SGMO.O  up 12%, Orchard
Therapeutics up 10.5%, RegenxBio up 5%, AvroBio Inc  AVRO.O  up
5%, Voyager Therapeutics  VYGR.O  up 5%, Abeona Therapeutics
 ABEO.O  up 8.5%, Uniqure  QURE.O  up 18.7%, BioMarin  BMRN.O 
up 1.7%, MeiraGTx  MGTX.O  up 1.5%, Ultragenyx  RARE.O  up 1.4%,
Sarepta Therapeutics  SRPT.O  up 3.9% 
    ** Gene therapies, which have the potential to cure
illnesses in a single dose, are one of the hottest areas of drug
research and only two have been approved by the FDA so far
    ** Drug developers have set aside about $2 bln to invest in
gene therapy manufacturing since 2018 and say they justify
prices well above $1 mln per patient, making them particularly
lucrative  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2874FU
    ** With many large drugmakers still without gene therapy
assets "it's fair to ask – who's next?", brokerage Piper Jaffray
says

 (Reporting by Tamara Mathias in Bengaluru)
 ((Tamara.Mathias@thomsonreuters.com; within U.S. +1 646 223
8780, outside U.S. +91 806749 1208;))