Biopharma company Maxygen (MAXY) scores deal, shares up 28%.

Shares of biopharmaceutical company Maxygen Inc. (NASDAQ: MAXY, Stock Forum) have had a healthy boost today – the price is up almost 28% to $4.46 in afternoon trading on news of a $130 million deal with Bayer HealthCare. Bayer has agreed to purchase Maxygen’s “hemophilia program assets, including a next-generation recombinant Factor VIIa protein known as MAXY-VII.” Another part of the deal “includes a license to use Maxygen's MolecularBreeding(TM) technology, a novel research platform, for exploiting gene targets.” (Go to news release.)
In speaking about the deal, CEO of Maxygen Russell Howard offered, "MAXY-VII has the potential to become the world's first approved shuffled protein therapeutic, a milestone that is likely to open up many more opportunities for Maxygen's technology. Bayer is the ideal company to move the MAXY-VII program toward that goal."
A long-term view of the stock price of Maxygen shows this to be, for the most part, an unexciting investment. Shares have remained mostly range-bound for a couple of years, trading between $7.00 and $10.00. There was a brief pop to $12.00 in early 2007, but prices then drifted back to the range until spring, 2008, when they took a nosedive to sub-$4.00 levels. Current lows combined with good news from Bayer appears to be bringing buyers back.
