miRagen Therapeutics closes Viridian takeover

Nasdaq-quoted biotechnology firm miRagen Therapeutics has announced the completion of its acquisition of Massachusetts-headquartered peer Viridian Therapeutics.

The deal has been structured as a stock-for-stock transaction in which all of the target’s outstanding equity interests were exchanged for a combination of the buyer’s shares and shares of Series A preferred stock.

No specific financial details of the acquisition have been disclosed.

However, miRagen has concurrently entered into definitive agreements for a USD 91.00 million investment from new and existing investors, including Fairmount Funds Management and Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners, as part of which it will issue Series A preferred stock at USD 465.96 each.

That injection, which has already been given the nod by the boards of both parties, is slated to complete on 30th October.

Proceeds of the PIPE investment have been earmarked for the advancement of clinical studies of VRDN-001, which is being developed as a potential treatment for thyroid eye disease.

As a result of the acquisition, Viridian chief executive Jonathan Violin will become chief operating officer at miRagen, while the target’s chief scientific officer will take the same role at the buyer.

Zephyr, the M&A database published by Bureau van Dijk, shows the largest deal targeting a provider of research and development services in the physical, engineering and life sciences segment to have been announced during 2020 to date was worth USD 13.10 billion.

That transaction took the form of an acquisition as Bristol-Myers Squibb agreed to pick up MyoKardia, a developer of small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of cardiovascular disease, back in October.

It was followed by Illumina’s USD 8.00 billion agreement to purchase the remaining 85.5 per cent stake it does not already own in cancer blood test developer Grail back in September.

© Zephus Ltd