What’s this? A ri­val bid­der heads back to the ta­ble with a bet­ter of­fer for Tetraphase. An­tibi­otics show faint signs of life

The un­like­ly bid­ding war for an­tibi­ot­ic mak­er Tetraphase isn’t over.

Af­ter Acel­Rx got the auc­tion start­ed with an of­fer to buy the failed biotech — which has been strug­gling to sell even mod­est amounts of their an­tibi­ot­ic Xer­a­va — for $14 mil­lion, La Jol­la Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal and Melin­ta have been en­gaged in a round of counter-bids.

Now La Jol­la, un­will­ing to let Melin­ta walk away with the an­tibi­ot­ic for a mere $39 mil­lion plus a $16 mil­lion CVR, has come back with a $43 mil­lion of­fer plus a $16 mil­lion CVR of their own.

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