July 5, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Two months after filing for 11 bankruptcy, Bind Therapeutics accepted a “stalking horse” bid from Pfizer , which would allow the pharma giant to acquire the majority of Bind’s assets.
The stalking horse announcement sent shares of Bind soaring more than 65 percent this morning, trading at 66 cents per share as of 9:35 a.m. That’s the biggest gain the stock has seen since April, following its plunge from $2.40 per share at the beginning of the month to 38 cents per share on the day Bind Therapeutics filed for Chapter 11.
Massachusetts-based Bind said it filed a motion in U.S. Bankruptcy Court to accept Pfizer’s asset purchase agreement of $20 million. A stalking horse bid occurs when a bankrupt company selects an outside entity to make a bid for some of the bankrupt company’s assets. A stalking horse bid is usually undertaken to maximize the value of its assets. However, once the initial bid is made, other entities are free to make bids for the assets as well.
On July 1, Bind said it asked the U.S. Bankruptcy court to authorize the asset sale by July 25, provided the company “receives qualified overbids no later than July 22.” Bind said it intends to select the highest and best offer at the conclusion of the auction of its assets. If Pfizer is selected as the successful bidder at the auction, or if no qualified competing bids are submitted, Bind said it anticipates to complete the transaction with Pfizer in the third quarter of 2016.
The auction of its assets will allow Bind to maximize interest in its programmable therapeutics, which it calls Accurins. Although Bind Therapeutics has had problems with its business model, the company has drawn interest from other pharmaceutical companies about its pipeline. The company announced Phase II results of Bind-014 used in the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) of squamous histology, which demonstrated a six-week disease control rate of 70 percent of patient population. Based on those results, the company said it intends to seek licensing or collaboration agreements from larger companies to further develop the drug candidate in NSCLC.
Bind currently has one kinase inhibitor Accurin, AZD2811, in phase I clinical trials in collaboration with AstraZeneca . A second kinase inhibitor is currently in investigational new drug-enabling activities through a collaboration with Pfizer. Following the announcement of a workforce reduction, Bind entered into a collaborative agreement with Japan-based PeptiDream to identify macrocyclic peptides that can be used as biologically active targeting ligands with Bind’s proprietary Accurin nanoparticles.
In May, Bind filed for Chapter 11 only weeks after the company slashed nearly 40 percent of its workforce as part of an effort to conserve cash to support ongoing research. The company said filing Chapter 11 gave Bind room to pursue “strategic and financial alternative that are in process.”
The bankruptcy filing and the layoffs follows on the heels of an announcement in April that Bind was undergoing a shift in its research and development of its cancer drugs. Bind said it could also look at licensing or selling some or all of its proprietary technologies, which would include its lead product, BIND-014, a nanoparticle therapeutic that targets a prostate-specific membrane antigen.
