Mesoblast shares tank af­ter No­var­tis aban­dons a part­ner­ship for the biotech's po­ten­tial Covid-19 treat­ment

No­var­tis of­fered up $25 mil­lion in cash last No­vem­ber for the rights to Mesoblast’s po­ten­tial cell ther­a­py for Covid-19. But af­ter a Phase III flunk, the Big Phar­ma’s now get­ting cold feet — and Mesoblast’s stock is suf­fer­ing big time.

Mesoblast shares $MESO tanked more than 17% on Tues­day morn­ing af­ter an­nounc­ing that No­var­tis has walked out on its part­ner­ship for remestem­cel-L. And be­cause the ter­mi­na­tion oc­curred be­fore clos­ing, Mesoblast missed out on up­front pay­ments of $25 mil­lion cash and a $25 mil­lion eq­ui­ty in­vest­ment.

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