Kinnate Biopharma (KNTE) (~$100MM market cap) is a clinical stage oncology company, while not quite a broken/busted biotech under my usual definition (full white flag on development pipeline and announce strategic alternatives), Kinnate did do a restructuring in September which resulted in 70% of their workforce being laid off as KNTE reprioritized their research efforts to earlier stage programs. The company recently reported $180.4MM in cash and securities as of 9/30, KNTE guided to having enough cash runway through Q2 2026 in the restructuring announcement, implying an ~$18MM/quarter cash burn rate going forward.
Normally this wouldn’t be of interest to me, but on 11/13, 46.2% joint owners, Foresite and OrbiMed (who are also teaming together on a potential Thesus Pharmaceuticals (THRX) bid) indicated that they’re exploring acquiring the remaining shares they don’t currently own. Foresite is a credible buyer as they did something similar with Pardes Biosciences (PRDS), buying that broken biotech for approximately 85% of the net cash value tossing in a CVR for 80% of any proceeds from the sale of the development pipeline. Something similar here would result in a ~$2.65 bid here, or 20% upside and could happen fairly quickly in the next month or two.
Disclosure: I own shares of KNTE
