Vanda Pharmaceuticals has received a second unsolicited, non-binding proposal from UK-based Cycle Group to acquire the company and has once again rejected the offer.
According to a Vanda press release, the terms of Cycle's newest proposal are economically identical to the previously evaluated and rejected indication of interest received from Cycle back in May. The Vanda board has evaluated the second offer — $8 per share in cash, valuing the company at $488 million — and unanimously determined that it substantially undervalues Vanda and is not in the best interests of the company and its stockholders.
The Vanda board concluded that Cycle's latest proposal is "another opportunistic attempt to purchase the company's shares at a discount to Vanda's intrinsic value."
Vanda has rejected a series of unsolicited takeover offers. The board rejected Cycle's first offer back in June, while simultaneously rejecting a higher offer - $8.50-$9.00 per share along with certain contingent value rights - from CDMO Future Pak, who had made two offers previously.
Washington, D.C.-based Vanda has three commercialized products: Hetlioz capsules, which became the first and only FDA-approved treatment for non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder in 2014; Fanapt tablets, approved to treat schizophrenia in 2009 and bipolar disorder this past April; and oral multiple sclerosis med Ponvory, picked up by Vanda in a $100 million deal with Janssen in 2023.
The drugmaker suffered a blow last month when the FDA rejected tradipitant — what would have been the first effective treatment approved for gastroparesis in over 40 years. Vanda took issue with the complete response letter, vowing to continue to push to get authorization for its neurokinin-1 receptor antagonist.