From din­ner in Mu­nich to $5.85 a share, Im­mune De­sign ex­ecs pushed for every pen­ny they could get from the Mer­ck bar­gain buy­out

Oc­to­ber 11, 2018 was Black Thurs­day at Im­mune De­sign $IMDZ. That’s when the com­pa­ny broad­cast that its lead pro­gram for CMB305 com­bined with Roche’s Tecen­triq was a bust in re­lapsed syn­ovial sar­co­ma. CEO Car­los Paya then shift­ed fo­cus to G100 and slashed the staff by 20% as its stock plunged 34%. Shares closed at $1.85.

Days lat­er, dur­ing a din­ner meet­ing in Mu­nich while at­tend­ing ES­MO, a “se­nior ex­ec­u­tive” at Mer­ck — who had been col­lab­o­rat­ing with Im­mune De­sign for the last 3 years on Keytru­da — said the phar­ma gi­ant $MRK was in­ter­est­ed in switch­ing from li­cens­ing talks to buy­ing the bat­tered com­pa­ny out­right.

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