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High-Premium Buyouts Continue In Hepatitis C Space; Are Idenix And Achillion Next?

Bristol’s $2.5 billion tender for Inhibitex left many industry observers waiting to see what HCV players will do with only two independent pure-play HCV biotechs left. Idenix is eager to get its mid-stage nucleotide free of an FDA partial clinical hold, while Achillion says it has the assets to go it alone in the HCV competition.

Hepatitis C remained one of the dominant topics of discussion at the 2012 JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, following Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s purchase of the virology-focused biotech Inhibitex Inc. at a high premium on Jan. 9, the first day of the conference. That deal was just the latest merger-and-acquisition activity in a hot therapeutic space that has seen three of the five remaining independent HCV companies bought out since October, all at significant premiums.

Bristol’s tender of $26 a share for Inhibitex, which comes to about $2.5 billion, a 163% premium over the Georgia-based company’s closing share price on Jan. 6, also reflected the scarcity value of nucleotide polymerase inhibitors (“nucs”), which many companies see as the potential backbone in all-oral, direct-acting antiviral (DAA) combinations expected to revolutionize the HCV treatment paradigm Also see "HCV Buyup Continues As Bristol Offers $2.5 Billion For Inhibitex" - Pink Sheet, 9 January, 2012.

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