AnaptysBio Slides 8% as Delaware Hearing Opens in GSK/Tesaro Contract Fight
ANAB has more than doubled off its 52-week low of $20.177 on elevated volume (1.9× avg).
Summary
AnaptysBio shares dropped 8% as a hearing began at 1:30pm in Delaware Chancery Court over its contract breach litigation with GSK and its Tesaro unit. AnaptysBio sued last November, alleging Tesaro, under GSK's influence, violated the 2014 exclusive collaboration agreement; GSK countersued, claiming AnaptysBio breached the deal by threatening to revoke Tesaro's Jemperli license. Hundreds of millions of dollars in milestone and royalty payments to AnaptysBio hinge on the outcome. This follows the 8-K from July 30 that laid out the post-trial briefing schedule, so the case is now at the argument stage rather than a ruling. GSK is the counterparty but the financial exposure is one-sided against AnaptysBio's much smaller revenue base, making this the dominant near-term risk for ANAB.
At the time of this announcement, ANAB was trading at $45.00 on NASDAQ in the Life Sciences sector, with a market capitalization of approximately $1.3B. The 52-week trading range was $20.18 to $72.36. This news item was assessed with negative market sentiment and an importance score of 7 out of 10. Source: Seeking Alpha.