Occasional activist Tang Capital Partners has sold its entire stake in La Jolla Pharmaceutical under a $149-million tender offer run by royalty management company Innoviva.
Tang reported the sale of its near-40% La Jolla stake to Innoviva in a regulatory filing on Wednesday, ending a multi-year involvement in the biotechnology company. The activist’s General Partner Kevin Tang has served as La Jolla’s chairman since 2014.
Last month, La Jolla agreed to be acquired by Innoviva for $5.95 per share, a 70% premium on the target’s 30-day average share price. The tender offer successfully closed earlier this week.
La Jolla received its first FDA approval in 2017, for a septic shock treatment called Giapreza. The drug was projected to reach $500 million in sales and transform La Jolla into a major drugmaker but last year Giapreza brought in just $33.4 million in sales.
The company’s slow-paced growth has disappointed investors. The stock was trading at around $3.40 before the Innoviva deal, a far cry from the roughly-$35 it was quoted at five years ago.
In 2018, La Jolla was profiled by Insightia’s Vulnerability module as the healthcare company most exposed to an activist attack in a list of six. That followed a short report from Art Doyle, which in April 2017 questioned the veracity of management’s claims about clinical trials and the size of Giapreza’s target market. Art Doyle put a $4 downside target on the stock, 86% below its price of around $30 at the time.
Tang, a life sciences-focused investment firm, last year tried to gain board representation at Aptevo Therapeutics after making a bid valuing the clinical-stage biotechnology company at about $240 million. The activist pulled its takeover bid and director nominees right before the annual meeting, triggering a plunge in Aptevo’s share price.