With the walls quickly closing in, Kronos Bio has accepted a buyout from notorious biotech acquirer Concentra Biosciences.
Tang Capital Partners’ Concentra inked a definitive deal to acquire Kronos’ common stock for a bargain price of 57 cents per share, 35% below the biotech's closing price of 89 cents on Wednesday. The deal further includes a contingent value right, allowing Kronos investors to receive additional proceeds based on a range of possible outcomes for the company's assets.
Kronos’ board has decided that the acquisition is in the best interests of all shareholders and approved the agreement. A wholly owned subsidiary of Concentra will start a tender offer by May 15, with the deal expected to close by mid-2025.
The closing of the offer is subject to certain conditions, including Kronos carrying at least $40 million in cash at closing.
The deal is somewhat of a saving grace for struggling Kronos. A few weeks ago, the small-molecule-focused biotech closed its headquarters in California in an attempt to save money.
The closure came five months after the biotech laid off 83% of its workforce, including its CEO at the time, Norbert Bischofberger, Ph.D. Kronos implemented the significant restructure in the wake of shelving its last remaining clinical asset, a CDK9 inhibitor called istisociclib, after reviewing troubling safety signals from a phase 1/2 trial in platinum-resistant high-grade serous ovarian cancer.
The buyout agreement comes at a busy time for Concentra. Last month, the company forked over 33 cents per share to buy struggling Allakos after that biotech dropped its lead drug and laid off 75% of its workforce in the wake of a trial failure earlier in the year.
Not all of Concentra's recent M&A moves have borne fruit, though. In response to the acquirer's advances, two other companies enacted "poison pill" defenses in March to keep Concentra at bay. One of them, Acelyrin, opted to merge with another biotech rather than sell itself.