September 23, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
BOULDER, Colo. – With the federal regulators closer to greenlighting Clovis Oncology ’s ovarian cancer drug, rucaparib, there are more rumors going around that the company may be a target of acquisition.
Several large pharmaceutical companies, including Merck , Takeda Pharmaceutical CO. and Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly , have been rumored to take an interest in the Colorado-based company—especially after its stock soared 15 percent last week following the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s decision to skip an advisory review. The FDA accepted rucaparib for priority review last month. That priority review, coupled with the decision to skip the advisory review is what may have sparked the interest of Eli Lilly, as it looks to Clovis as a means to compete with Pfizer and its recent acquisition of Seattle-based Medivation . That company has a pipeline that includes talazoparib, another PARP inhibitor that could generate annual sales of more than $1 billion.
The FDA is slated to rule on rucaparib on Feb. 23, 2017. If the drug is approved, rucaparib could generate sales of more than $1 billion, earning it a blockbuster status.
But are questions about whether or not Clovis will be snapped up by a larger pharmaceutical company “overdone?” A recent analysis by The Street indicates that the timing could be off to snap up Clovis due to its stock price run up. Over the past three months, shares of Clovis have appreciated more than 130 percent over the past three months, The Street noted. Shares have climbed from a low of $11.57 in June to this morning’s price of $38.
Roy Buchanan of Janney Montgomery Scott gave Clovis a neutral rating. The Street said his decision was based on the fact that, although he believes rucaparib will be approved by the FDA, he does not “see any source behind the rumors” of a takeover.
Another PARP manufacturer, Tesaro Inc. has also been considered a possible M&A target. Earlier this year, shares of Tesaro more than doubled following announcements that its Phase III clinical trial of niraparib met its endpoints of progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with ovarian cancer. Niraparib is an oral, once-daily PARP inhibitor currently in three clinical trials.
Over the past year, Clovis has become a more stream-lined company due to the failure of its experimental lung cancer drug, rociletinib. Following the failure and subsequent termination of trials related to the drug, Clovis was forced to slash 35 percent of its workforce.
