Entasis Therapeutics Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: ETTX) is engaged as a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company, which is focused on the research, development, and commercialization of advanced antibacterial therapies to treat multidrug-resistant pathogens. Shares of the biopharma company are rallying 21% through early trading on Monday, May 23, 2022. Over the past three months, Entasis Therapeutics has seen average daily volume of 69,060 shares. However, volume of 3.45 million shares or dollar volume of around $7.49 million, has already exchanged hands through early trading.
Shares of Entasis Therapeutics are gaining after the company announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Innoviva, Inc. (NASDAQ: INVA), a holding company with an expansive portfolio of royalties and healthcare assets. Under the terms of the agreement, Innoviva will acquire all outstanding shares of Entasis at a price per share of $2.20 cash. The acquisition gives Entasis an equity valuation of $113 million.
Entasis Therapeutics was originally established back in 2015 as a spin-off from AstraZeneca. Since then, the company has developed an impressive clinical and pre-clinical pipeline of treatments for multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. The company’s leading product, SUL-DUR, achieved all its primary and secondary endpoints during a Phase 3 registrational trial and a New Drug Application is expected to be sent to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration during the third quarter 2022.
“This acquisition will build upon our overall strategy to acquire differentiated, high-potential assets in attractive, yet often overlooked, disease areas where our capital and capabilities can make a difference,” said Pavel Raifeld, Chief Executive Officer of Innoviva. “This transaction represents the next phase in our efforts to diversify our operations beyond our valuable royalty portfolio and will create significant value for patients, health systems and shareholders. We look forward to working with the Entasis team to advance sulbactam-durlobactam (SUL-DUR) and its broader novel antibacterial pipeline to address the urgent and serious threat posed by multidrug-resistant pathogens. Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter infections are an area of significant unmet medical need and, if approved by regulators, SUL-DUR could become the leading treatment for this disease.”
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