So Long, Spark Therapeutics And Clementia

(RTTNews) - It's raining blockbuster mergers & acquisitions in the pharma sector today - with Roche entering into a definitive merger agreement to acquire Spark Therapeutics, and Ipsen agreeing to acquire Clementia Pharmaceuticals.

Roche is all set to acquire Spark Therapeutics Inc. (ONCE) for US$114.50 per share, which equates to a total transaction value of about US$4.3 billion. The price represents a premium of approximately 122% to Spark Therapeutics' closing price on February 22, 2019, and a premium of about 19% to Spark Therapeutics' 52-week high share price on July 9, 2018.

Spark Therapeutics is a commercial gene therapy company. Luxturna, an adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapy, from the Company's stable won FDA approval in December 2017 to treat children and adult patients with an inherited form of vision loss that may result in blindness. This therapy was approved in the European Union as recently as November 2018. Net annual sales of Luxturna were $27 million in the year ended December 31, 2018.

The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2019. Following the merger, Spark Therapeutics will continue its operations in Philadelphia as an independent company within the Roche Group.

We had alerted our premium subscribers to ONCE on April 8, 2016, when it was trading around $33 (Report titled "A Spark Biding its Time to Blaze A Trail?", and again on January 10, 2019, when it was trading around $43. (10 Gene Therapy Companies Unignorable In 2019).

Ipsen (IPSEY.OB) has agreed to acquire Canada-based Clementia Pharmaceuticals (CMTA) for US$25.00 per share in cash upfront plus a contingent value right (CVR) of US$6.00 per share on the achievement of a future regulatory milestone, which equates to a total transaction value of up to US$1.31 billion.

The initial cash consideration of US$25.00 per share represents a premium of 77% to Clementia's 30-day volume-weighted average stock price.

Clementia is a clinical-stage company developing treatments for rare bone disorders and other diseases. The Company's lead product candidate is Palovarotene, under phase III trial for the treatment of fibrodysplasia ossificans progressive, and in phase II testing for the treatment of multiple osteochondromas.

A New Drug Application for Palovarotene for episodic flare-up treatment of fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva is expected to be submitted to the FDA in the second half of 2019.

The completion of the transaction is anticipated to occur in the second quarter of 2019.

CMTA was trading around $10 when it was featured in our "This Day That Year" column on August 2, 2018.