After announcing acquisition plans at the beginning of 2025, immunotherapeutics biotech Hookipa Pharma has decided not to buy rare disease company Poolbeg Pharma.
Jan. 2, Hookipa inked a nonbinding agreement that would have created a merged company with Poolbeg via an all-stock transaction. Poolbeg was set to give up its listing on the U.K.’s AIM exchange and become a subsidiary of Nasdaq-listed Hookipa.
Now, however, Hookipa has called off the deal, according to a Feb. 20 release.
"We were surprised and disappointed to hear of HOOKIPA's decision to withdraw from the combination discussions," Cathal Friel, executive chair of Poolbeg, said in a Feb. 21 release.
The initial proposal would have resulted in Poolbeg shareholders owning about 55% of the equity of the merged company, with Hookipa’s shareholders accounting for the remaining 45%.
However, those percentages were set to be immediately reduced because of a primary private placement fundraise of around $30 million that Hookipa organized to provide the merged company with enough money to advance its pipeline.
The canceled M&A move follows a rocky 2024 for New York-based Hookipa, a year that included layoffs after Roche walked away from a collaboration on its HB-700 program for KRAS-mutated cancers.
At the time of the January deal announcement, Hookipa’s HB-700 program was expected to deliver interim phase 1 data in the first half of 2026.
As for Poolbeg, the biotech's lead candidate is a preventive therapy for cancer immunotherapy-induced cytokine release syndrome. Dubbed POLB 0001, the program is being assessed in a phase 2 trial with a topline readout expected in the second half of 2026.
"Throughout this process, we have seen strong interest in the potential of POLB 001 and we continue to be focused on maximizing the potential of our in-house programs and exploring new opportunities to generate value for our shareholders," Poolbeg's Friel said.
Editor's note: This article was updated at 9:20 a.m. ET on Feb. 21 to include statements from Poolbeg.