That’s what investors seem to think, as the news that Axovant Sciences hired an industry veteran sent the shares of biotech’s most polarizing company up nearly 30 percent on Monday.
But while the market sees potential for a big buyout that would rescue an otherwise tepid year for biotech, Axovant says it’s settling in for the long haul, suggesting investors may have outpaced reality.
In brief, Axovant recruited Dr. David Hung, whose last company successfully developed a blockbuster cancer drug and then parlayed that into a $14 billion sale, making him something like to a two-time Super Bowl winner in biotech terms. Hung is taking over the CEO job for Vivek Ramaswamy, Axovant’s 31-year-old founder, as the company awaits 2017’s biggest biotech event: results from an Alzheimer’s disease trial that could either decuple or decimate Axovant’s value.
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