the release<\/a> of data on Akero Therapeutics\u2019 rival drug candidate ignited a newfound excitement about FGF21 analogs. At the time, Roche told 89bio the Akero data were a positive indicator for the drug class and outlined plans to form a cross-functional team to explore a potential deal for pegozafermin.<\/p>\nTwo other companies gained access to 89bio\u2019s virtual data room in March. A fourth company received a confidential program overview in April but subsequently declined to proceed with further diligence on a collaboration with 89bio. The company was one of two drugmakers that dropped out of the race after talking to 89bio throughout April and May.<\/p>\n
By July, 89bio had an offer from Roche\u2014and confirmation that five other global biopharma companies had no plans to strike a deal. The five companies that turned 89bio down in July were among a total of seven, plus Roche, that the biotech spoke to in 2025.<\/p>\n
89bio deemed Roche\u2019s initial offer\u2014$13 a share at a time when the stock traded at $10.22\u2014insufficient to merit further talks about an acquisition. The biotech pitched a $20-plus offer to Roche. After visiting 89bio\u2019s manufacturing facilities, Roche came back with an offer of $14 a share plus $2 a share tied to the first sale of pegozafermin for the treatment of stage 4 MASH.<\/p>\n
With the offer falling short of 89bio\u2019s $20 a share floor, further talks took place in August. Roche added more success-based payments and tagged 50 cents onto the upfront offer, bringing the potential deal value up to $19.50 a share. 89bio held out and days later received Roche\u2019s \u201cbest and final\u201d offer, which failed to address the call for a bigger upfront but did tweak the success-based payments.<\/p>\n
The two sides continued to negotiate over the timing of the success-based payments, but the core of the deal was in place by late August. Roche had avoided going much above the $13 a share it initially offered and, through the success-based payments, 89bio had secured a total package that crept above the $20 a share targeted by its board.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everyone flirted with 89bio. Only Roche wanted to put a ring on it. In a financial filing, 89bio\u00a0detailed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[124],"tags":[4166,1115,3772,9275,2541,3265,3343,134],"class_list":["post-81581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-roche","tag-89bio","tag-biotech","tag-deals","tag-fierce-biotech-homepage","tag-ma","tag-mash","tag-mergers-and-acquisitions","tag-roche"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116732005416917864","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}