BioCentury
ARTICLE | Finance

Valuing OnCore

How Tekmira merger fetches better valuation for OnCore than IPO

January 19, 2015 8:00 AM UTC

At roughly half a billion dollars, OnCore Biopharma Inc.'s value point in its planned merger with RNAi play Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp. (TSX:TKM; NASDAQ:TKMR) is likely far above what the preclinical infectious disease company would have fetched with its proposed IPO.

Thus far in this IPO window, 10 preclinical companies have gone public at an average valuation of $222.5 million. Only one company has scored a postmoney valuation north of $500 million: cancer play Agios Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:AGIO), which at the IPO price was valued at $558.2 million and since has surged to more than $4.5 billion. ...