Investors OrbiMed and Foresite say they’re looking at taking Kinnate private, following pipeline and staff cuts

Kin­nate Bio­phar­ma’s stock $KNTE soared 59% on Wednes­day af­ter­noon af­ter the Cal­i­for­nia drug de­vel­op­er dis­closed that two large share­hold­ers have ex­pressed in­ter­est in a take-pri­vate deal.

Or­biMed and Fore­site — which own about 29% and 17% of Kin­nate’s out­stand­ing com­mon shares, re­spec­tive­ly — wrote to the board on Mon­day ex­press­ing an “in­tent to ex­plore and eval­u­ate a po­ten­tial ac­qui­si­tion of all of the out­stand­ing shares of com­mon stock” of the San Fran­cis­co-based biotech, per an SEC fil­ing.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.