Daily Brief Health Care: Taisho Pharmaceutical Holdin, Shield Therapeutics and more

• Taisho Pharmaceutical Holdin (4581 JP)’s MBO JPY8,620 offer closes on 15 January. Since announcing the offer, the shares have traded above terms for 21 out of the 30 trading days.
• Japan Catalyst has called the offer’s P/B of 0.85x too low. While shares trading above terms does not guarantee that the tender fails, it does increase the risk of failure.
• The offeror has no compelling reason to bump as other activists have not publicly supported Japan Catalyst, the high 55.5% premium to undisturbed price and an achievable minority acceptance rate. 

Shield Therapeutics has appointed Santosh Shanbhag as chief financial officer (CFO) and member of the executive leadership team. Mr. Shanbhag was previously the CFO of Nasdaq-listed Akili, which he helped grow and take public. Before Akili, he held senior finance positions at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, where he worked on business and corporate development and helped secure reimbursement for novel drugs in key international markets. We expect Shield to leverage Mr. Shanbhag’s US healthcare experience, which should support the company in optimising pricing and expand payor coverage for Accrufer.