Here's What Canaccord Learned After Spending A Day With Synageva's Management

In a report published Thursday, Canaccord Genuity analyst Adam Walsh, MD detailed a recent meeting with Synageva Biopharma Corp (NASDAQ: GEVA)'s management team and came away "more positive" on the LAL-D commercial opportunity.

Separately, Synageva has announced that Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALXN) has bid to acquire Synageva for $115 in cash and 0.6581 Alexion shares for each share of Synageva – valuing the deal at $230 per share at the time of announcement.

According to Walsh, Synageva will receive U.S. approval for Kanuma in the second half of 2015. Alexion's management views Synageva as an "operational and strategic fit" and expects Kanuma sales to exceed $1 billion in annual revenues.

During a conference call to discuss the acquisition, Alexion's management noted they are confident that LAL-D is underdiagnosed and the prevalence rate of LAL-D to be as high, if not higher than PNH. Alexion also detailed similarities between launch efforts for Soliris in PNH and current efforts for Kanuma in LAL-D.

Walsh said the acquisition will result in a combined eight clinical product candidates in 11 indications with three ongoing registration programs. In addition, the combined entity will result in 30 diverse preclinical programs with 12 from Synageva's discovery platform.

The analyst is expecting the deal to close in approximately 45 days (mid-June) and expect Alexion to bear the regulatory risk of Kanuma with a PDUFA date of September 8.

Following the acquisition announcement, the analyst downgraded shares of Synageva to Hold from Buy with no assigned price target (versus a previous price target of $125) as shares are no longer trading on fundamentals due to the pending acquisition.