aibioAtea Pharmaceuticals authorizes $25 million buyback, reaches agreement with Radoff-JEC Group
The Radoff-JEC Group withdrew its director slate under the agreement. Atea's review of strategic alternatives with Evercore is still going.
Key facts
- Companies
- Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVIR), Coya Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: COYA)
- News type
- Distress
- Primary source
- Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 8-K (2025-04-17)
Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: AVIR) said on April 17, 2025, that its board has authorized the repurchase of up to $25 million of its common stock, and that the company will promptly begin executing on the program. The company describes the buyback as a return of capital to shareholders while maintaining the flexibility needed to continue funding its global Phase 3 program for hepatitis C.
The same day, Atea announced an agreement with Bradley L. Radoff and Michael Torok and certain affiliates, referred to as the Radoff-JEC Group. Under the agreement, the group withdrew its slate of nominated director candidates and agreed to vote all of its shares for Atea's board nominees at the 2025 annual meeting. The company says the agreement includes certain customary standstill, voting and other provisions, and that the full agreement will be filed as an exhibit to a Form 8-K.
Board changes and the strategic review
As part of the agreement, Atea added Howard H. Berman, Ph.D., to the board as a non-voting observer. He will join as a full voting member at the 2025 annual meeting. Berman is the founder, executive chairman and former chief executive officer of Coya Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: COYA). He previously held senior medical liaison roles at AbbVie Inc., Eli Lilly and Co. and Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Franklin Berger has told the company he does not intend to stand for reelection at the 2027 annual meeting.
The release also covers a strategic review. Atea engaged Evercore on December 16, 2024, to identify opportunities to enhance shareholder value. The review covers strategic partnerships, acquisition, merger, other business combinations, and sales of assets. The release says the process is ongoing and that there is no assurance it will produce any transaction. The company does not intend to comment further unless its board approves a definitive course of action, the review concludes, or other disclosure is judged appropriate.
The release names Evercore as Atea's financial advisor and Latham & Watkins LLP as its legal counsel. Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP is named as legal counsel to the Radoff-JEC Group. The release does not say how the buyback relates to the strategic review.
The lead program and its data
Atea's lead program is a regimen of bemnifosbuvir and ruzasvir for chronic hepatitis C. The annual report filed on March 6, 2025 said the company expected to start enrolling patients in an HCV Phase 3 program in April 2025. The release refers to that program as its global Phase 3 HCV program.
The earlier Phase 2 study enrolled 275 patients. The company announced in December 2024 that it met its primary endpoints of safety and SVR12. The annual report puts the per-protocol SVR12 rate at 98% (208/213) after 8 weeks of treatment. The efficacy-evaluable population, which included 17% of patients who were not fully adherent to treatment, reached 95% (242/256). Among treatment-adherent patients without cirrhosis, the report gives 99% (178/179) across genotypes 1 through 4.
The cirrhosis data are smaller. Treatment-adherent patients with compensated cirrhosis reached 88% (30/34). The report also says viral kinetics were slower in cirrhotic patients, although all 34 of them achieved an end-of-treatment response at week 8. The company has designed the Phase 3 trials to use 8 weeks of treatment for patients without cirrhosis and 12 weeks for patients with compensated cirrhosis.
The annual report also acknowledges that direct-acting antiviral combination regimens are already available, and that hepatitis C remains a serious disease despite them. In January 2025, the company met the FDA at an end-of-Phase 2 meeting to seek feedback on the design of its Phase 3 trials.
What the release leaves out
The release reports no Phase 3 results. It gives no cash balance, no financial statements and no figure for the number of shares repurchased since the authorization.