They’re delusional. The company is still overvalued by at least 50-60%.
STAT: Who’s going to pay billions for Mirati?
Mirati Therapeutics went from biotech obscurity to buyout-rumor ubiquity thanks to adagrasib, a promising cancer drug aimed at a biological target once considered undruggable. But it remains unclear whether the company, which is reportedly considering a sale, can fetch the multibillion-dollar offer its valuation implies.
The latest Mirati news comes from Bloomberg, which
reported yesterdaythat the company has retained an adviser to consider potential takeovers and that big companies have been looking into it, with no deals imminent. The story sent Mirati’s share price, which has been cut nearly in half over the past year, up about 15%.
The problem for Mirati is timing. The FDA is scheduled to make a final decision on adagrasib next month, and while the drug’s approval is not in doubt, it remains unclear whether its label will be more restrictive than the one for Lumakras, an Amgen medicine aimed at the same so-called undruggable target. Beyond that, key data on adagrasib’s benefits for earlier stages of cancer are still on the horizon, making it unclear whether any potential suitor would be willing to pay in excess of $5 billion for the company in the presence of so many unknowns.