Ko­re­an buy­er jumps in­to M&A game with $566M bid for Aveo On­col­o­gy

More than 12 years ago, Aveo On­col­o­gy vault­ed on­to Nas­daq with an IPO pitch cen­tered on its lead can­cer drug, tivozanib. It took al­most a decade, with an FDA re­jec­tion, mul­ti­ple share­hold­er law­suits and an SEC in­ves­ti­ga­tion along the way, but the biotech fi­nal­ly clinched an ap­proval in the US last year.

Now, Ko­rea’s LG Chem is tak­ing it pri­vate in a $566 mil­lion all-cash deal.

While no match for its hey­day, the of­fer of $15 per share marks a 43% pre­mi­um to Aveo’s clos­ing price on Mon­day. By fus­ing it­self with LG Chem, Aveo says it will get more re­sources to de­vel­op its pipeline, which fea­tures four ex­per­i­men­tal can­di­dates in ad­di­tion to new in­di­ca­tions be­ing test­ed for tivozanib, now mar­ket­ed as Fo­tiv­da.

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