Translate Bio Stock Soars on Reports Sanofi Makes Takeover Bid
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Translate Bio stock was soaring on reports of a Sanofi takeover bid.
Thomas Lohnes / AFP via Getty ImagesTranslate Bio stock was soaring in after-hours trading on a report that Sanofi had made a bid to acquire the biotech company.
Reuters reported that Sanofi (ticker: SNY), which already has a partnership with Translate (TBIO), made an offer to acquire the messenger RNA-focused biotech. The amount of the bid was unknown.
That didn’t stop the market from reacting: Translate stock was up 84% at $53.51 at 6:23 p.m. while Sanofi shares were up 0.8% to $52.
Neither company was immediately available for comment.
Translate specializes in the same mRNA technology that Moderna (MRNA) and BioNTech (BNTX) used to developed their Covid-19 vaccines. The company began a Phase 1 trial of an mRNA-based flu vaccine with Sanofi in June.
After earlier playing down the importance of mRNA in vaccines, Sanofi has started to bet big on the technology. In June, it announced plans to spend €400 million, or roughly $476 million a year, on a “vaccines mRNA Center of Excellence” that would enable to it speed up the research it was already doing with Translate. Now, it’s buying the whole company. It’s an abrupt shift for Sanofi, whose CEO had called predictions that mRNA technology would dominate vaccines “overblown.”
It’s been a volatile few days of trading for Translate. The stock hit a record of $35.61 this past Thursday before tumbling 22% on Friday on no news that we could see. It rallied 5.5% during regular market hours Monday before its after-hours surge.
Expect that volatility to continue until a deal is either announced or denied.
Write to Ben Levisohn at ben.levisohn@barrons.com