Sanofi buys mR­NA play­er Trans­late Bio for $3.2B. And the price fits a pop­u­lar range for biotech M&A

Sanofi CEO Paul Hud­son is dead se­ri­ous about his in­ten­tion to vault di­rect­ly in­to con­tention for the fu­ture of mR­NA vac­cines.

A year af­ter pay­ing Trans­late Bio $TBIO a whop­ping $425 mil­lion in an up­front and eq­ui­ty pay­ment to help guide the phar­ma gi­ant to the promised land of mR­NA vac­cines, Sanofi closed the deal with a buy­out ear­ly Tues­day, spend­ing $38 a share in a $3.2 bil­lion buy­out.

Trans­late’s stock $TBIO soared af­ter the mar­ket closed Mon­day when Reuters re­port­ed the first word of the ac­qui­si­tion just hours ahead of the for­mal an­nounce­ment. The wire ser­vice, though, didn’t have a price to re­port in its scoop, and in­vestors chased the stock up 78% in the wild ride that fol­lowed. Once the price was an­nounced, gains shriv­eled to 29% ahead of the bell.

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