Days after picking up IGM Biosciences, serial biotech acquirer Concentra Biosciences has secured another company in the form of cash-strapped Cargo Therapeutics.
The deal will see Tang Capital Partners-owned Concentra pay $4.38 in cash for each share of Cargo, almost exactly the price that Cargo’s shares closed trading at on Monday.
Cargo’s shareholders will also receive non-transferable contingent value rights to receive a share of any leftover money in Cargo's coffers beyond a baseline of $217.5 million, as well as a share of 80% of the proceeds from the sale of any of the biotech’s assets over the next two years.
Many of Concentra’s targets are biotechs that have found themselves in tough times, and Cargo certainly fits the bill. This year has already seen the company drop its lead CD22 CAR-T therapy along with its B-cell disease prospect CRG-023.
The company has also suspended development of its allogeneic platform, parted ways with its CEO and laid off 90% of its workforce in 2025.
The biotech offloaded its lead therapy back in January after patients in a phase 2 trial began experiencing serious side effects, including 18% who developed grade 3 or higher immune effector cell-associated hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis-like syndrome (IEC-HS). An undisclosed number of patients in the trial died from IEC-HS.
In this morning’s release, Cargo said its board had conducted a strategic review of the company’s options before “unanimously” deciding to take up Concentra on its offer. Cargo launched in 2022 with $200 million, before going public with a $281 million IPO the following year.
Cargo will mark the latest in a string of acquisitions for the deal-hungry Concentra. So far this year, Concentra has signed off on mergers with struggling biotechs like Elevation Oncology, Kronos Bio, Allakos and—just last week—IGM.
Not all of Concentra's recent M&A efforts have succeeded, though. In response to the company’s advances, two biotechs enacted "poison pill" defenses in March to keep Concentra away. One of them, Acelyrin, chose to merge with another biotech.