CASI Pharma Receives Acquisition Proposal For Entire China Business; Stock Surges In After-hours

(RTTNews) - CASI Pharmaceuticals Inc. (CASI) said it received a preliminary non-binding proposal letter dated June 21, 2024, from Wei-Wu He, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive officer of the Company, to acquire the entire business operations of the Company in China and all license-in, distribution and related rights in Asia (excluding Japan) related to all of the company's pipeline products, including but not limited to EVOMELA, FOLOTYN, CNCT19, BI-1206, CB-5339,CID-103 and Thiotepa, for an aggregate purchase price of $40.0 million. The offer price includes assumption of up to $20.0 million of indebtedness of the company.

CASI closed Wednesday's regular trading at $3.58 down $0.04 or 1.24%. But in the after-hours trading, the stock gained $2.28 or 63.73%.

CASI's Board and the Special Committee cautioned the company's shareholders and others considering trading the company's securities that no decisions have been made with respect to the Proposed Transaction or any alternative strategic option that the company may pursue.

In addition, CASI Pharmaceuticals said that it plans to submit an Investigational New Drug application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for CID-103 for the treatment of antibody-mediated rejection in kidney transplant recipients by the end of 2024.

CID-103 is a fully human IgG1 anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody recognizing a unique epitope that has demonstrated an encouraging preclinical efficacy and safety profile compared to other anti-CD38 monoclonal antibodies.