A bit of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) news has Miragen Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MGEN) stock skyrocketing on Wednesday.
This is due to the company announcing the acquisition of Viridian Therapeutics, a private biotech firm that focuses on advancing new treatments for patients with underserved diseases.
Additionally, MGEN also said part of the deal includes an agreement for the sale of Series A non-voting convertible preferred stock in a private placement to a group of institutional accredited investors. In turn, the company believe this move can generate gross proceeds of about $91 million.
According to the release, the company intends to use this money to advance clinical studies of VRDN-001. This is a clinical-stage, insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R) monoclonal antibody (mAb) in development for thyroid eye disease (TED). TED is a debilitating condition that can cause bulging eyes, or proptosis, as well as double vision and potential blindness.
Jeffrey S. Hatfield, chairman of the board of directors of Miragen, had this to say about the MGEN stock announcement:
“After a thorough evaluation of strategic alternatives, the Board of Directors of miRagen believes this acquisition represents the highest-potential value creation opportunity for miRagen’s stockholders. My sincere thanks and appreciation to our Board members and management team, both past and present, along with our investors for their support and commitment. We are excited by the potential for VRDN-001 to become a meaningful treatment option for patients living with TED.”
MGEN stock was up more than 115% as of Wednesday morning.
On the date of publication, Nick Clarkson did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.
Nick Clarkson is a web editor at InvestorPlace.
On Penny Stocks and Low-Volume Stocks: With only the rarest exceptions, InvestorPlace does not publish commentary about companies that have a market cap of less than $100 million or trade less than 100,000 shares each day. That’s because these “penny stocks” are frequently the playground for scam artists and market manipulators. If we ever do publish commentary on a low-volume stock that may be affected by our commentary, we demand that InvestorPlace.com’s writers disclose this fact and warn readers of the risks.
Read More: Penny Stocks — How to Profit Without Getting Scammed
