PHAS - PhaseBio sinks ~67% after getting transfer notice for lead drug bentracimab's business

PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals ( NASDAQ: PHAS ) stock slumped 67.1% to $0.25 in Wednesday mid-day trading, after the company disclosed that it had received a notice from collaboration partner SFJ Pharmaceuticals for the transfer of its lead drug bentracimab's business.

PHAS in Jan. 2020 had entered into a financing and co-development agreement with SFJ Pharma for the development of bentracimab, also known as PB2452, which was being evaluated for the reversal of the antiplatelet activity induced by stroke medication ticagrelor.

SJF had agreed to provide funding of up to $120M in return for a series of annual payments from PHAS.

PhaseBio ( PHAS ) in a regulatory filing on Tuesday disclosed that, due to its failure to remedy a going concern condition which was part of the agreement with SFJ, SFJ had now sent it a program transfer notice for the bentracimab business.

The developments led William Blair research to downgrade its rating on PHAS to market perform.

"Our prior valuation for PhaseBio had been entirely based on bentracimab," William Blair analyst Matt Phipps said in a research note.

"Given we see it as highly unlikely that PhaseBio retains any right to commercialize the asset following SFJ's decision... we have significantly reduced our probability of bentracimab commercialization by PhaseBio," Phipps said.

PHAS in the regulatory filing said that its board was considering all potential actions in response to SFJ's program transfer notice, including legal and/or restructuring alternatives.

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