Date: 2018-02-21
Type of information: Company acquisition
Acquired company: Viralytics (Australia)
Acquiring company: Merck&Co (USA - NJ)
Amount: $394 million
Terms:
- • On February 21, 2018, Merck & Co and Viralytics announced that the companies have signed a definitive agreement under which it is proposed that Merck, through a subsidiary, will acquire Viralytics for AUD 1.75 cash per Viralytics share. The proposed acquisition values the total issued shares in Viralytics at approximately AUD 502 million ($ 394 million). The cash consideration of AUD 1.75 per share represents a premium of 160% to the one month volume weighted average price (VWAP) of Viralytics shares.
- The board of directors of Viralytics unanimously recommends that its company’s shareholders vote in favor of the Scheme, subject to there being no superior proposal and an independent expert concluding that the Scheme is in the best interest of the company’s shareholders. It is the intention of Viralytics’s directors to vote all the shares of Viralytics held or controlled by them in favor of the Scheme, subject to those same qualifications.
- Merck &Co and Viralytics anticipate the transaction will be implemented by the second quarter of 2018. Implementation of the transaction is subject to a Viralytics’s shareholder vote and customary regulatory approvals. Viralytics’s largest shareholder, Lepu Medical Group, which currently holds voting power in 13 percent of the Viralytics’s shares, has informed Viralytics that it intends to vote the shares it holds at the time of the Scheme meeting in favor of the Scheme, in the absence of a superior proposal and subject to the Viralytics directors maintaining their recommendation to vote in favor of the Scheme.
Details:
- Viralytics is an Australian publicly traded company focused on oncolytic immunotherapy treatments for a range of cancers
On completion of the transaction, Merck&Co will gain full rights to Cavatak® (CVA21), an investigational oncolytic immunotherapy based on Viralytics’s proprietary formulation of an oncolytic virus (Coxsackievirus Type A21) that has been shown to preferentially infect and kill cancer cells. The product is currently being evaluated in multiple Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials, both as an intratumoral and intravenous agent, including in combination with Merck’s Keytruda® (pembrolizumab).
Related: Cancer - Oncology
Is general: Yes
