BioCryst and Presidio call off proposed merger

BioCryst's proposed acquisition of Presidio Pharmaceuticals will no longer go ahead.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals and Presidio Pharmaceuticals have agreed to terminate their proposed merger transaction.

In a statement, BioCryst said the decision to call off the agreement announced on October 18th was "mutual".

"Although the original rationale for the merger had merit, the parties determined that terminating the merger was in the best interest of both companies and their respective shareholders at this time," the company explained.

Each company will be responsible for meeting its own legal and transaction fees in the wake of the cancelled merger.

The proposed transaction would have resulted in Presidio being acquired by BioCryst, with the former being valued at approximately $101 million.

At the time of the original announcement, BioCryst's president and chief executive officer Jon Stonehouse described the new company as a "serious competitor in the development of orally administered, safe and effective combination therapies for hepatitis C".

But the US Food and Drug Administration recently voiced concerns about toxicity issues affecting BioCryst's experimental hepatitis C drug BCX5191, putting the possibility of a new hepatitis C regimen combining drugs from both companies into doubt.