Mi­cro­cap Cona­tus teams up with phar­ma gi­ant No­var­tis on NASH drug, shares rock­et up

The mi­cro­cap biotech Cona­tus Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals $CNAT just struck a li­cens­ing deal with No­var­tis for its lead drug that’s worth about as much as its mar­ket cap at to­day’s close — and that’s just the cash por­tion of the agree­ment. Its share price rock­et­ed up, climb­ing 146% in ear­ly-morn­ing trad­ing Tues­day.

San Diego-based Cona­tus is get­ting $50 mil­lion up­front from phar­ma gi­ant No­var­tis, which gets an op­tion on em­ri­c­as­an 9 months af­ter the drug hit a slate of bio­mark­er end­points in a small mid-stage study for fat­ty liv­er dis­ease and NASH. No­var­tis is pay­ing half of the Phase IIb costs and will hand over an­oth­er $7 mil­lion if it ex­er­cis­es its op­tion in the deal.

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