Shares of Juno Therapeutics jumped more than six percent on Tuesday after the Seattle biotechnology company announced its acquisition of Waltham, Massachusetts-based X-BODY Inc.
X-BODY is small, employing just nine people. But Juno is excited about the prospects of its technology.
“The X-BODY acquisition brings protein engineering capabilities to Juno that meaningfully improve our ability to generate novel CAR T and TCR product candidates, which will help optimize potential therapies against both current and new targets,” said Julep CEP Hans Bishop in a statement. “We are delighted to welcome our new Massachusetts-based employees, who have impressed us with the quality of their science and output since our partnership began in early 2014.”
It marks the second acquisition for Juno in the past 30 days. Last month, Juno bought Germany-based Stage Cell Therapeutics for $59 million in cash and 486,279 shares.
Juno is paying $21 million in cash for X-BODY, plus 439,265 shares of stock (equivalent of $25 million). It also has agreed to make “success-based payments” to XBODY upon completion of research, clinical and regulatory milestones.
Shares of Juno have been on a wild ride in the past year (see chart) — moving between $34 and $66. The company’s stock has surged in recent weeks, and Juno is now valued at $4.8 billion.
The company went public last December at $24 per share. It is a spin out of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Seattle Children’s Research Institute.
