Sorrento pencils deal to acquire SmartPharm

24 July 2020

USA-based Sorrento Therapeutics (Nasdaq: SRNE) has signed a letter of intent to acquire SmartPharm Therapeutics, a gene-encoded therapeutics company developing non-viral DNA and RNA gene delivery platforms for COVID-19 and rare diseases, with broad potential for application in enhancing antibody-centric therapeutics, including against COVID-19.

The transaction is expected to close in August 2020, said Sorrento, which has itself been the subject of takeover solicitations that have been rejected. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Sorrento, shares of which were down 3.2% at $7.55 by mid-morning, and SmartPharm previously announced a research and development collaboration to encode and express in vivo Sorrento's proprietary SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing monoclonal antibodies utilizing SmartPharm's Gene Mab plasmid nanoparticle platform.

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