Boston, MA 04\/02\/2014 (wallstreetpr) –\u00a0Investors who acquired stake in Acceleron Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:XLRN)<\/b> before its IPO have agreed to sell their stake to a major drugmaker that is seeking to up its stake in the company.<\/p>\n
The early investors to cash in on their holding, through sale to Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ:CELG)<\/b>, include Flagship Ventures, Venrock, Alkermes Inc, Advanced Technology Ventures and Polaris Venture Partners. The sellers will be offering combined total of 1.1 million shares of Acceleron. They all acquired the shares before the September IPO, during which the shares were offered at $15. Currently the shares are trading in the range of $39 per piece.<\/p>\n
Acceleron is clinical stage biotech with focus on development and commercialization of drugs for treatment of cancer and some rare diseases.<\/p>\n
On the receiving end<\/b><\/p>\n
As the early investors sell their holding, Celgene has agreed to acquire the shares. About $47 million is expected to be involved in the transaction which will increase the state of Celgene in Acceleron to 14.8 percent. As of January, Celgene owned about 11.29 percentage stake in Acceleron, translating to 3.5 million shares, according to FactSet Research.<\/p>\n
Collaboration with major drugmakers<\/b><\/p>\n
Acceleron Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:XLRN), being a small drugmaker struggling to bring a groundbreaking product to the market, has collaborated with major drug developers including Celgene. The two companies have a tie-up in two experimental drugs targeted for the treatment of cancer and rare diseases. Thus, Celgene has already offered about $75 million to Acceleron in upfront payments in relation to the two investigational treatments. And Acceleron Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:XLRN) is eligible to receive another $567 million in milestone payments from Celgene under the two programs.<\/p>\n
Acceleron Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:XLRN) is among the dozens of small drug developers which have witnessed sharp rise in valuation as share prices jump with optimism among investors. The stock currently boasts $1.22 billion in market cap. The young drug companies seem to be promising as they mirror the success which has been seen in top bio-techs like Celgene. And investors are wasting no time to search for the next big thing in the industry. On that note, stocks like Acceleron are circled by many public-market investors.<\/p>\n
Major drug makers looking for support<\/b><\/p>\n
Not only are retain investors attracted to young bio-techs, but major drug-makers are also searching for companies such as Acceleron Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:XLRN) with promising new drugs under development. Investing in young bio-techs help top drug-makers to maintain or even grow their revenue as some of their drugs lose market exclusivity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Boston, MA 04\/02\/2014 (wallstreetpr) –\u00a0Investors who acquired stake in Acceleron Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:XLRN) before its IPO have agreed to sell their stake to a major […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":18533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_2902945987_2902945987":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[5800,2860,2861,5801],"stock_ticker":[],"class_list":["post-18527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-acceleron-pharma-inc-nasdaqxlrn","tag-celgene-corporation-nasdaqcelg","tag-nasdaqcelg","tag-nasdaqxlrn","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n