By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Acceleron stock (NASDAQ:XLRN) rose more than 7% Monday on a Bloomberg report it is in advanced discussions to be acquired by a large pharmaceutical company for about $180 a share in cash.
The stock touched a high of $182.29 in today’s session so far. It gave up some of the gains later.
The identity of the potential buyer couldn’t be immediately learned, the report said.
Several global drug makers, including Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY), which owns 11.5% of Acceleron’s stock, are seen as obvious potential suitors, according to the report.
The biopharmaceutical company is focused on pulmonary and hematologic diseases. The company aims to develop medicines that selectively target multiple ligands (proteins) in the TGF-beta superfamily, which play critical roles in the development of serious diseases.
The TGF-beta superfamily are secreted proteins involved in development and a range of vital cellular processes, including signaling, differentiation, metabolism, protein synthesis, motility, and invasion in a microenvironment-dependent manner. The body is usually able to maintain a state in which these proteins achieve an equilibrium supportive of those essential processes. However, imbalances in protein levels can contribute to a host of diseases.