BioCentury
ARTICLE | Finance

Acambis chronicles

August 4, 2008 7:00 AM UTC

From its five-year high of 393p on Sept. 15, 2003, through July 25 of this year, Acambis (LSE:ACM) has lost 70% of its value. The stock jumped 60% to 185.5p on July 28 after sanofi-aventis (Euronext:SAN; NYSE:SNY) announced after the markets closed on Friday, July 25, that it would acquire its partner for 190p a share in cash. Below are selected events tracked against Acambis’ weekly stock price since September 2003. A. 9/16/03 - CEO John Brown says he plans to step down after a replacement is found

B. 12/19/03 - Baxter (NYSE:BAX) sells its 20% stake for about £52.2M ($91.3M)C. 1/30/04 - Restructures to focus research on nine compounds in four vaccine areas: smallpox, West Nile, travel and endemic vaccines and C. difficileD. 2/19/04 - Withdraws a BLA for Arilvax vaccine to prevent yellow feverE. 2/23/04 - CFO and acting CEO Gordon Cameron is promoted to CEOF. 4/13/04 - Suspends enrollment in two Phase III trials comparing its ACAM2000 second-generation smallpox vaccine to Dryvax smallpox vaccine after myopericarditis, a temporary condition characterized by inflammation of the heart and surrounding tissues, was seen in both treatment arms. Dryvax is from Wyeth (NYSE:WYE).G. 9/30/04 - Receives a Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) vaccine contract worth up to $131M from NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)...