MediciNova buys Avigen in $37M deal

MediciNova said today that it has finally worked out a deal to buy competing company Avigen for $37 million, or $1.24 per share. The deal represents a 7 percent discount tor Avigen's closing stock price on August 5. Under the terms of the agreement, $1.19 a share will be paid when the deal closes in the fourth quarter of this year, and 5 cents a share to be paid on June 30, 2010.

Avigen has been on the rocks since last year when a key drug failed a clinical trial, sending the company's stock into a nosedive. Though the company resisted calls for a deal, Biotechnology Value Fund eventually gained control of Avigen and engineered the deal for MediciNova.

The two companies first announced some terms of the deal in June. At that time, Avigen's CEO and CFO Andrew Sauter claimed that combining Avigen's AV411 and MediciNova's MN-166 programs could improve development potential to address a range of neurological conditions, including multiple sclerosis, neuropathic pain and drug addiction.

- here's the Reuters report

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