It was revealed in a filing yesterday with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission that RA Capital Management has opened a large, passive position in Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation (NASDAQ:TKMR). The filing dates back to January 12, the same day Tekmira experienced a more than 50% jump in their stock price after their announced merger with OnCore Biopharma, and shows that RA Capital has acquired 2.21 million shares of Tekmira, 9.9% of all common shares.
The investment in Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation (NASDAQ:TKMR) by Peter Kolchinsky’s RA Capital Management is by no means a surprise, given the hedge fund’s focus on investing in companies in the health sciences and pharmaceutical sectors, particularly those developing promising new drugs. In addition to their evidence-based investing, which is done only after rigorous studies of the product’s viability and market potential, the Boston-based fund also provides support to their portfolio companies as needed.
Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation (NASDAQ:TKMR) is only the latest in a long list of health-related companies to draw the attention of RA Capital. As we reported in November, RA Capital initiated a position in Proteon Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:PRTO), with 8.3% of the company’s shares (1.25 million), while a month earlier they initiated a new position on TG Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:TGTX) with 3.14 million shares, accounting for 8.3% of TG’s common stock.
As with Tekmira, both of those recent positions are also passive by nature. While the majority of RA Capital’s holdings are passive, they do occasionally take activist positions, as in the case of Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACHN), which they’ve recently begun to heavily divest themselves of. In the third quarter alone, they sold nearly 16 million of the 24.49 million Achillion shares they owned at the start of the quarter. That selloff bumped Achillion down from the largest position in RA Capital’s equity portfolio, to third, behind Dyax Corp. (NASDAQ:DYAX) and BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BCRX). As of September 30 they had 7.81 million shares in the former, and 7.07 million shares in the latter.
As mentioned, Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation (NASDAQ:TKMR) announced on January 12 that they would merge with OnCore Biopharma, a partnership which would create the largest Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) drug company in the world. The merger sent their stock soaring from a close of $15.70 on January 9, to a close of $24.68 on January 12, the next trading day. Tekmira traded as low as $8.86 in July. Through the merger, OnCore will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tekmira.
Shortly after the merger was announced, RBC Capital raised their price target on Tekmira from $25.00 to $35.00, with an ‘Outperform’ rating. Leerink Swann likewise raised the stock to ‘Outperform’, while Maxim Group lifted its price target on the stock to $27.00 from $21.00 with a ‘Buy’ rating.
On January 20, Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation (NASDAQ:TKMR) announced that their TKM-HBV Phase I clinical trial was underway, and that the first subject had been dosed with the treatement. The trial is a randomized, single-blind, placebo-controlled study, involving single ascending doses of the TKM-HBV treatment, through intravenous administration. The treatment aims to reduce the level of hepatitis B surface antigen in subjected suffering from chronic HBV.
In addition to HBV treatments, Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation (NASDAQ:TKMR) is also working on treatments for ribonucleic acid interference (RNAi), as well as on lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery technology that could be used throughout the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation (NASDAQ:TKMR)’s most recent quarterly results, for the third quarter of 2014, show that the company exceeded analyst expectations with $4.40 million in revenue, up 46.7% from the same year-ago period. Analysts have predicted $-1.61 earnings per share for the company’s 2014 fiscal year.
Other prominent shareholders in Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation (NASDAQ:TKMR) include Julian Baker and Felix Baker’s Baker Bros. Advisors, also a fund with a biotechnology slant, which owned 481,156 shares in Tekmira as of September 30, 2014. Paul Tudor Jones’ Tudor Investment Corp was another one, with 100,000 shares.
Disclosure: None
