Veracyte Completes Acquisition of HalioDx

On August 3, 2021 Veracyte, Inc. (Nasdaq: VCYT) reported the company has completed its acquisition of HalioDx to solidify its reach into global markets while expanding its scientific capabilities and diagnostics scope into 8 of the 10 top cancers as defined by U.S. incidence (Press release, Veracyte, AUG 3, 2021, View Source [SID1234585590]).

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"This important acquisition is the culminating piece in a series of strategic initiatives and acquisitions that we believe will enable Veracyte to achieve our vision of improving outcomes for patients worldwide at every step of their journey," said Marc Stapley, Veracyte’s chief executive officer. "HalioDx’s European manufacturing infrastructure and operations, along with the company’s immuno-oncology capabilities and best-in-class diagnostic products, have the potential to fuel our growth in cancer diagnostics. We look forward to welcoming the talented HalioDx team to the Veracyte family and working together to build a leading global diagnostics company."

Bonnie Anderson, Veracyte’s executive chairwoman, led the acquisition of HalioDx. She will also drive the ongoing integration, including the transition of manufacturing operations to France, maximizing the combined global potential of each company’s cancer diagnostics technology platform and capabilities.

Transaction Details
Under the terms of the transaction, Veracyte acquired HalioDx for €260 million, consisting of approximately €147 million in cash and €113 million in stock. HalioDx has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Veracyte.

Myriad Genetics Delivers Strong Revenue and Earnings Growth in June 2021 Quarter, Continues to Execute on Strategic Growth & Transformation Plans

On August 3, 2021 Myriad Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: MYGN), a leader in genetic testing and precision medicine, reported financial results for its second quarter ended June 30, 2021 and provided an update on recent business performance and strategic transformation plans (Press release, Myriad Genetics, AUG 3, 2021, View Source [SID1234585589]).

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"This was another solid quarter for Myriad Genetics as we delivered strong revenue growth and grew earnings ahead of our initial expectations, an important step towards demonstrating our ability to achieve our goal of sustainable long-term growth and profitability," said Paul J. Diaz, president and CEO. "These results reflect the hard work of our teammates, and their dedication to meeting the needs of our patients and provider partners, as we continue to advance our mission to empower every individual with the genetic answers inside each of us."

Financial and Operational Highlights:

Total revenue in the quarter was $189.4 million, an increase of 103% year-over-year and 9% sequentially. The following product categories saw significant sequential improvements:


*Tumor profiling revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2021 includes approximately $7M in positive revenue adjustments from prior periods related to back pay for the Prolaris test for prostate cancer. Excluding that adjustment tumor profiling grew 21% sequentially.

Diagnostic test volumes of 273,000 increased 70% year-over-year and 8% sequentially and average revenue per test increased 2% sequentially.
GAAP gross margin was 71.6%; adjusted gross margin was 72.1%, which improved 70 basis points sequentially.
GAAP total operating expenses were $156.5 million; adjusted total operating expenses decreased $3.9 million sequentially to $123.1 million.
GAAP operating loss in the quarter was $(20.8) million; adjusted operating income was $13.5 million.
GAAP earnings per share (EPS) were $(0.06); adjusted EPS were $0.12, which improved $0.18, sequentially.
Closed the sale of the Myriad myPath business on May 28, 2021 and Myriad RBM business on July 1, 2021.
Expect to close the sale of the Myriad Autoimmune business in third quarter of 2021.
Ended the quarter with $184.3 million in cash, cash equivalents and investments.
"These operating results are particularly encouraging in light of the significant amount of organizational change we’ve undertaken, as we execute on our strategic transformation and growth plans and complete the divestitures of RBM, Vectra and myPath," said Diaz. "We remain focused on elevating our portfolio of leading products to their full potential, as we strengthen our commercial capabilities, improve our customers’ experience, and build a platform to support accelerated growth and innovation. The progress we made this quarter gives us confidence in our ability to execute in our core segments, and accelerate and finance our emerging R&D activities and technological innovations to advance our mission, new products and our business development efforts."

Business Transformation Updates:

In the second quarter, the company remained focused on executing in its core segments, as it announced and/or closed several divestitures, completed its sales force realignment, and readied for the launch of its new brand and marketing strategy. The company also saw continued positive results from its revenue cycle enhancement investments.

On May 28, 2021, the company completed the sale of the Myriad myPath, LLC laboratory to Castle Biosciences, Inc. for $32.5 million in cash. On July 1, 2021, the company completed the sale of its wholly-owned subsidiary, Myriad RBM, Inc., to Q2 Solutions for $198 million, subject to customary adjustments. On May 3, 2021, the company signed a definitive agreement to sell select operating assets and intellectual property, including the Vectra test, to Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings for $150 million in cash. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the third quarter. Total revenue from RBM, Vectra and myPath during the quarter was $20.7 million.

The company intends to use the expected total divestiture gross proceeds of approximately $380 million to fund investments in technology, R&D and commercial efforts as well as to strengthen the balance sheet.

On July 30, 2021, the company made a voluntary principal payment of $106.4 million, which paid down the full amount that remained outstanding under its $264 million amended credit facility.

Business Performance and Highlights:

Women’s Health
The goal of Myriad Women’s Health is to become a leader in personal and family health and wellness, a rapidly growing market for genetic testing and precision medicine. Myriad Women’s Health currently serves women assessing their risk of cancer, and those who are pregnant or planning a family. The Myriad Women’s Health business delivered revenue of $67.3 million in the quarter, an increase of 123% year-over-year and 22% sequentially.

Hereditary Cancer
MyRisk Hereditary Cancer test volumes for the Women’s Health business increased 8% sequentially. Average selling prices (ASP) were stable sequentially excluding positive revenue adjustments related to better-than-expected cash collections on tests ordered in prior periods.
Yesterday, Myriad Genetics expanded access to genetic testing with the launch of the first polygenic breast cancer risk assessment score validated for women of all ancestries.
MyRisk Hereditary Cancer test with RiskScore provides breast cancer risk assessment for all women not previously diagnosed with breast cancer, regardless of ancestry.
Together, MyRisk with RiskScore offers a breast cancer risk assessment designed to improve patient outcomes and help minimize healthcare disparities. RiskScore results are informed by a combination of genetic markers, clinical and biological variables, personal and family history, and ancestry-specific data. RiskScore is available at no additional cost to women who take the MyRisk test.

Prenatal
The company’s prenatal business continued to demonstrate positive growth trends in the quarter with test volumes increasing 31% year-over-year and 4% sequentially.
Prenatal revenue growth was driven by ASP improvement and increased volumes.
The company continues to see growth driven by its proprietary AMPLIFY technology, which further increases the performance of its Prequel noninvasive prenatal screening (NIPS) test.
Oncology
Myriad’s Oncology business provides hereditary cancer testing, such as MyRisk, for patients who have cancer. It also provides tumor profiling products such as the EndoPredict breast cancer prognostic test, the Prolaris prostate cancer test, and the myChoiceCDx companion diagnostic test for predicting response to PARP inhibitors. The Oncology business delivered revenue of $76.3 million in the quarter, an increase of 121% year-over-year and 7% sequentially.

Hereditary Cancer test volumes for the Oncology business in the quarter increased 97% year-over-year and 7% sequentially.
Tumor profiling test volumes increased 41% year-over-year and 13% sequentially.
Myriad’s partnership with Intermountain Healthcare, supported by Illumina, will provide Myriad’s leading germline hereditary cancer test (MyRisk), Myriad’s FDA approved companion diagnostic test (myChoiceCDx), together with a Myriad branded tumor profiling test powered by Illumina’s TSO500 and run by Intermountain’s Precision Genomics. Importantly, patients and their healthcare providers will receive one comprehensive solution from one laboratory with one team of scientists interpreting the results thereby significantly improving the quality and ease of use of the results. The product is expected to launch in early 2022.
Mental Health
Myriad’s Mental Health business consists of the pharmacogenomic category GeneSight psychotropic test that covers 61 medications commonly prescribed for depression, anxiety, ADHD, and other psychiatric conditions. The Mental Health business delivered revenue of $22.6 million in the quarter, an increase of 166% year-over-year and 28% sequentially.

Test volumes for GeneSight were up 161% year-over-year and 22% sequentially.
GeneSight saw a strong increase in new ordering providers with more than 2,700 physicians ordering GeneSight for the first time in the quarter. Overall, the number of ordering physicians increased 12% sequentially and test utilization per provider increased 11% sequentially.
Financial Guidance
Given the continued unpredictability surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic (and its variant strains) as well as the impact it continues to have on the healthcare environment, customer behavior and the ability to market tests to physicians, the company will not provide financial guidance for the third quarter ending September 30, 2021 or fiscal year 2021. In addition, the third quarter has historically been impacted by summer seasonality and may be impacted by the recent surge of the COVID -19 Delta variant.

Conference Call and Webcast
A conference call will be held today, Tuesday, August 3, 2021, at 4:30 p.m. EDT to discuss Myriad’s financial results for the second quarter 2021 and business developments. The dial-in number for domestic callers is 1-800-920-2191. International callers may dial 1-212-271-4651. All callers will be asked to reference reservation number 21996351. An archived replay of the call will be available for seven days by dialing 1-800-633-8284 and entering the reservation number above. The conference call and slide presentation will be available through a live webcast at www.myriad.com.

About Myriad Genetics
Myriad Genetics is a leading genetic testing and precision medicine company dedicated to advancing health and wellbeing for all, empowering individuals with vital genetic insights and enabling healthcare providers to better detect, treat and prevent disease. Myriad discovers and commercializes genetic tests that determine the risk of developing disease, assess the risk of disease progression, and guide treatment decisions across medical specialties where critical genetic insights can significantly improve patient care and lower healthcare costs. For more information, visit the company’s website: www.myriad.com.

Myriad, the Myriad logo, BART, BRACAnalysis, Colaris, Colaris AP, MyRisk, Myriad MyRisk, MyRisk Hereditary Cancer, myChoice, myPlan, BRACAnalysis CDx, Tumor BRACAnalysis CDx, myChoice CDx, Vectra, Prequel, Foresight, GeneSight, riskScore and Prolaris are trademarks or registered trademarks of Myriad Genetics, Inc. or its wholly owned subsidiaries in the United States and foreign countries. MYGN-F, MYGN-G.

United Therapeutics Corporation To Present At The 2021 Wedbush PacGrow Healthcare Virtual Conference

On August 3, 2021 United Therapeutics Corporation (Nasdaq: UTHR) reported that Martine Rothblatt, Ph.D., Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of United Therapeutics, will provide an overview and update on the company’s business during a fireside chat session at the 2021 Wedbush PacGrow Healthcare Virtual Conference (Press release, United Therapeutics, AUG 3, 2021, View Source [SID1234585588]).

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The session will take place virtually on Wednesday, August 11, 2021, from 8:35 a.m. to 9:05 a.m., Eastern Daylight Time, and can be accessed via a live webcast on the United Therapeutics website at View Source An archived, recorded version of the session will be available approximately 24 hours after the session ends and can be accessed at the same location for 90 days.

Sanofi to acquire Translate Bio; advances deployment of mRNA technology across vaccines and therapeutics development

On August 3, 2021 Sanofi’s endeavor to accelerate the application of messenger RNA (mRNA) to develop therapeutics and vaccines, reported the company has entered into a definitive agreement with Translate Bio (NASDAQ: TBIO), a clinical-stage mRNA therapeutics company, under which Sanofi will acquire all outstanding shares of Translate Bio for $38.00 per share in cash, which represents a total equity value of approximately $3.2 billion (on a fully diluted basis) (Press release, Sanofi, AUG 3, 2021, View Source [SID1234585587]). The Sanofi and Translate Bio Boards of Directors unanimously approved the transaction.

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"Translate Bio adds an mRNA technology platform and strong capabilities to our research, further advancing our ability to explore the promise of this technology to develop both best-in-class vaccines and therapeutics," said Paul Hudson, Sanofi Chief Executive Officer. "A fully owned platform allows us to develop additional opportunities in the fast-evolving mRNA space. We will also be able to accelerate our existing partnered programs already under development. Our goal is to unlock the potential of mRNA in other strategic areas such as immunology, oncology, and rare diseases in addition to vaccines."

"Sanofi and Translate Bio have a shared commitment to innovation in the mRNA space. With Sanofi’s long-standing expertise in developing and commercializing vaccines and other innovative medicines on a global scale, Translate Bio’s mRNA technology is now even better positioned to reach more people, faster," said Ronald Renaud, Chief Executive Officer, Translate Bio. "The talented and dedicated Translate Bio team has built the foundation of a strong mRNA platform. Our expertise coupled with that of Sanofi has driven significant progress under the collaboration thus far, and we believe that this acquisition will strengthen the team’s ability to achieve the full potential of the mRNA technology."

In June 2018, Sanofi and Translate Bio entered into a collaboration and exclusive license agreement to develop mRNA vaccines which was further expanded in 2020 to broadly address current and future infectious diseases. There are two ongoing mRNA vaccine clinical trials under the collaboration, the COVID-19 vaccine Phase 1/2 study with results expected in Q3 2021 and the mRNA seasonal influenza vaccine Phase 1 trial with results due in Q4 2021. The acquisition builds on Sanofi’s establishment of a first-of-its kind vaccines mRNA Center of Excellence.

On the therapeutic side, Translate Bio has an early-stage pipeline in cystic fibrosis and other rare pulmonary diseases. In addition, discovery work is ongoing in diseases that affect the liver, and Translate Bio’s MRTTM platform may be applied to various classes of treatments, such as therapeutic antibodies or vaccines in areas such as oncology. Sanofi’s recent acquisition of Tidal Therapeutics expanded the company’s mRNA research capabilities in both immuno-oncology and inflammatory diseases. The Translate Bio acquisition further accelerates Sanofi’s efforts to develop transformative medicines using mRNA technology.

Transaction Terms

Under the terms of the merger agreement, Sanofi will commence a cash tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of Translate Bio common stock for $38.00 per share in cash reflecting a total equity value of Translate Bio of approximately $3.2 billion. The purchase price represents a premium of 56% to Translate Bio’s volume-weighted average price per share over the past 60 days.

To demonstrate their commitment to the transaction, the chief executive officer of Translate Bio and Translate Bio’s largest shareholder, The Baupost Group, L.L.C., have signed binding commitments to support the tender offer. These binding commitments, combined with the Translate Bio shares already owned by Sanofi or its affiliates, represent a total of approximately 30% of Translate Bio’s total shares outstanding.

The consummation of the tender offer is subject to customary closing conditions, including the tender of a number of shares of Translate Bio common stock that together with shares already owned by Sanofi or its affiliates represents at least a majority of the outstanding shares of Translate Bio common stock, the expiration or termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, and other customary conditions. Following the successful completion of the tender offer, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sanofi will merge with Translate Bio and the outstanding Translate Bio shares not already owned by Sanofi or its affiliates that are not tendered in the tender offer will be converted into the right to receive the same $38.00 per share in cash paid in the tender offer. The tender offer is expected to commence later this month. Sanofi plans to fund the transaction with available cash resources. Subject to the satisfaction or waiver of customary closing conditions, Sanofi expects to complete the acquisition in the third quarter of 2021.

Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc is acting as exclusive financial advisor to Sanofi while Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP is acting as legal counsel. Centerview Partners is acting as lead financial advisor to Translate Bio in the transaction, while Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP is acting as legal counsel. Evercore is also acting as a financial advisor in this transaction to Translate Bio. MTS Health Partners, LP is also giving financial advice to Translate Bio.

Announcement of Consolidated Financial Results Fiscal 2021 Second Quarter

On August 3, 2021 Kyowa Hakko Kirin reported (Press release, Kyowa Hakko Kirin, AUG 3, 2021, View Source [SID1234585586])

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1. Consolidated Financial Results for the Six Months Ended June 30, 2021

(2) Consolidated financial position

2. Dividends

3. Consolidated Earnings Forecasts for the Fiscal Year Ending December 31, 2021 (from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021) Quarterly financial results reports are exempt from quarterly review conducted by certified public accountants or an audit corporation. * Notice regarding the appropriate use of the earnings forecasts and other special comments

The forward-looking statements, including earnings forecasts, contained in these materials are based on the information currently available to the Company and on certain assumptions deemed to be reasonable by management. As such, they do not constitute guarantees by the Company of future performance. Actual results may differ materially from these projections for a wide variety of reasons.

1. Operating Results and Financial Statements
(1) Summary of Consolidated Financial Position

Assets as of June 30, 2021, were ¥819.8 billion, an increase of ¥18.5 billion compared to the end of the previous fiscal year.

 Non-current assets increased by ¥8.3 billion to ¥367.1 billion, due mainly to an increase in deferred tax assets, in addition to an increase in goodwill associated with the impact of yen depreciation.

 Current assets increased by ¥10.2 billion to ¥452.7 billion, due mainly to an increase in cash and cash equivalents resulting from the proceeds from sale of assets held for sale (shares of Hitachi Chemical Diagnostics Systems Co., Ltd.) as well as an increase in inventories, despite a decrease in assets held for sale.

Liabilities as of June 30, 2021, were ¥99.2 billion, a decrease of ¥3.7 billion compared to the end of the previous fiscal year, due mainly to a decrease in trade and other payables.

 Equity as of June 30, 2021, was ¥720.5 billion, an increase of ¥22.1 billion compared to the end of the previous fiscal year, due mainly to an increase due to the recording of profit attributable to owners of parent as well as an increase in exchange differences on translation of foreign operations resulting from the impact of exchange rates, despite a decrease due to the payment of dividends, etc. As a result, the ratio of equity attributable to owners of parent to total assets as of the end of the second quarter was 87.9%, an increase of 0.7 percentage points compared to the end of the previous fiscal year.

(2) Summary of Consolidated Business Performance

1) Overview of results The Group now applies the International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS") in line with its policy of expanding business globally, and adopts "core operating profit" as a level of profit that shows the recurring profitability from operating activities. Core operating profit is calculated by deducting "selling, general and administrative expenses" and "research and development expenses" from "gross profit," and adding "share of profit (loss) of investments accounted for using equity method" to the amount. For the six months ended June 30, 2021 (January 1, 2021 to June 30, 2021), revenue was ¥165.0 billion (up 4.6% compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year), and core operating profit was ¥30.9 billion (down 10.2%). Profit attributable to owners of parent was ¥25.1 billion (down 9.8%).

 The increase in revenue was the result of steady growth of global strategic products in North America and EMEA and strong sales in Asia, mainly in China, despite lower revenue in Japan. The positive effect on revenue from foreign exchange was ¥1.5 billion.

 The decrease in core operating profit was the result of increases in selling, general and administrative expenses, and research and development expenses, despite an increase in gross profit due to an increase in overseas revenue. The positive effect on core operating profit from foreign exchange was ¥0.2 billion. 

Profit attributable to owners of parent decreased as a result of an increase in income tax expense in addition to a decrease in core operating profit, despite a decrease in other expenses.