STAT+: Abivax has still not been acquired. What’s going on?

This story first appeared in Adam’s Biotech Scorecard, a subscriber-only newsletter. STAT+ subscribers can sign up here to get it delivered to their inbox.

Biotech M&A activity is off the charts, yet the French drugmaker — developer of obefazimod, a treatment for ulcerative colitis with blockbuster commercial potential — remains unbetrothed. We’re nine months into a year in which a takeout of Abivax for $20 billion (give or take a few billion) was deemed likely to happen any day. The absence of said transaction has caused the stock’s investor fanbase much grief and consternation.

Without visibility into the actual sale process, there is no way to pinpoint exactly what’s happening between Abivax and its Big Pharma suitors. We can guess, of course, starting with the most facile explanation I’ve heard: Abivax is French and the French don’t work in August.

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