uniQure N.V. (QURE) Shares Move Sharply Higher

uniQure N.V. (QURE) is a big mover this market session, as its shares are up nearly 50%. The surge came after the company announced an exclusive agreement to develop gene therapies for cardiovascular diseases with Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY). uniQure also said that the drug giant has made an initial equity investment in the company for a number of shares that will equal 4.9% of the total number of shares outstanding following such issuance, at a purchase price of $33.84 per share, above Thursday’s closing price of $22.86. Bristol-Myers will also buy another 5% stake by the end of this year and be given warrants to buy up to another 10% stake in the company.

The parties have also agreed to enter into a supply contract, under which UniQure will undertake manufacturing of all gene therapy products under the collaboration.

“This collaboration will accelerate the application of gene therapy for large patient populations suffering from heart diseases and will complement the further development of UniQure’s internal pipeline in two focus areas: liver diseases, including hemophilia, and CNS, including lysosomal storage diseases,” said in a statement uniQure CEO Joern Aldag.

uniQure shares recently gained more than 10 points to $33.87. Approximately 872K shares have already changed hands, compared to the stock’s average daily volume of 183K shares.

On valuation measures, uniQure N.V. shares have a T-12 price/sales ratio of 93.13 and a price/book for the same period of 7.47. EPS is ($3.01). The name has a market cap of $410.22 million and a median Wall Street price target of $29.00 with a high target of $30.00. Currently there are 3 analysts that rate QURE a ‘Buy’. No analysts rates it a ‘Hold’ or a ‘Sell’.

Shares of Amsterdam, the Netherlands-based biopharmaceutical company are up 41.55% year-over-year and 54.36% year-to-date.

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