While Pliant Therapeutics and Acelyrin recently blocked ever-eager acquirer Concentra Biosciences with “poison pill” defenses, struggling Allakos is welcoming a $0.33 per share buyout offer with open arms.
Allakos’ has board unanimously decided that a Concentra buyout deal is “in the best interest” of all of its shareholders and expects the merger to close in May, the company said in an April 2 press release. The move may be Allakos' last lifeline, considering the biotech has been teetering on the brink of closure after throwing in the towel on its last remaining asset in January. Since then, Allakos has spent the last few months exploring strategic alternatives with a workforce of 15 employees as its remaining cash pile has dwindled.
The company gave up on developing its AK006 after a phase 1 flop in hives saw the candidate matching the performance of placebo, a setback that led Allakos to lay off 75% of its staff. Everything was riding on AK006 after the company scrapped its lead asset, lirentelimab, and halved its head count last year on the back of a string of failures in eczema.
Concentra has made pursuing takeovers of struggling biotechs a habit and successfully closed in on Allakos after striking out with both Pliant Therapeutics and Acelyrin. Those two companies implemented “poison pill" plans to ward off a buyout through a defense mechanism that makes it difficult for a single entity to build an ownership stake larger than 10%.
Acelyrin attributed the rule changes to the “continued rapid accumulation” of its stock by Tang Capital Partners, while Pliant said it looked to “reduce the likelihood that any entity, person or group is able to gain control of Pliant through open market accumulation.” However, the move came after Tang and its entities scooped together 9.6% of Pliant’s stock, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing revealed.
Besides Acelyrin and Pliant, Concentra has been denied in takeover attempts by several companies including Atea Pharmaceuticals, Rain Oncology, LianBio and Kezar Life Sciences. The Tang-owned biopharma did, however, successfully pick up Jounce Therapeutics and Theseus Pharmaceuticals in 2023.