In­vestors Or­biMed and Fore­site say they're look­ing at tak­ing Kin­nate pri­vate, fol­low­ing pipeline and staff cuts

Kin­nate Bio­phar­ma’s stock $KNTE soared 59% on Wednes­day af­ter­noon af­ter the Cal­i­for­nia drug de­vel­op­er dis­closed that two large share­hold­ers have ex­pressed in­ter­est in a take-pri­vate deal.

Or­biMed and Fore­site — which own about 29% and 17% of Kin­nate’s out­stand­ing com­mon shares, re­spec­tive­ly — wrote to the board on Mon­day ex­press­ing an “in­tent to ex­plore and eval­u­ate a po­ten­tial ac­qui­si­tion of all of the out­stand­ing shares of com­mon stock” of the San Fran­cis­co-based biotech, per an SEC fil­ing.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER