Date: Jan 28, 2014 Author: Don Seiffert Source: bizjournals (
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by Don Seiffert
Idenix Pharmaceuticals has raised $107 million through the sale of shares to Boston-based hedge fund, The Baupost Group, at a price of $6.50 a share, sending the Cambridge biotech's stock up double-digits by this afternoon.
Idenix, which is developing drugs for the treatment of human viral diseases, including hepatitis C, said Baupost now owns about 35 percent of the company's stock. Before the deal, it owned a 27-percent stake.
Shares in Idenix were trading up 16 percent for the day, to $7.98 a share, as of 2 p.m. today.
The company said it will use the money for the sale for clinical trials of its lead drug, samatasvir, which is in Phase 2 trials, as well as "future patent litigation expenses." The company filed patent infringement lawsuits against Gilead Sciences in December concerning Gilead's hepatitis C drug, sofosbuvir, which was approved that month.
Idenix said that its current cash levels ($149 million as of Sept. 30) will be enough to last into the second half of 2015.
