Say what? Al­ler­gan just agreed to pay a 6X cash pre­mi­um for To­bi­ra and its trou­bled PhI­II NASH drug

A cou­ple of months af­ter a tri­al set­back crushed To­bi­ra’s share price, Al­ler­gan $AGN has swooped in to buy the com­pa­ny for $29.35 a share and up to $49.84 a share in con­tin­gent val­ue rights if its late-stage NASH drug turns out to be a hit.

That cash price is more than six times what To­bi­ra’s bat­tered stock $TBRA closed at yes­ter­day, a vir­tu­al­ly un­heard of pre­mi­um in a mar­ket that is al­ready ap­ply­ing high val­ues to biotech as­sets. The to­tal val­ue for the com­pa­ny will range up to $1.7 bil­lion. The com­pa­ny stock trad­ed for $4.74 at the close yes­ter­day, with a mar­ket cap of $89 mil­lion.

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