=Merrimack Pharma (MACK) reported earnings on Wed 1 March 17 (b/o)

Merrimack Pharma misses by $0.03, misses on revs :

• Reports Q4 (Dec) loss of $0.25 per share, $0.03 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus of ($0.22); revenues rose 186.0% year/year to $61.2 mln vs the $62.66 mln two analyst estimate.
• As announced on January 8, 2017, Merrimack entered into an asset purchase and sale agreement with Ipsen S.A. under which Merrimack will sell ONIVYDE and its generic version of doxorubicin hydrochloride (HCI) liposome injection to Ipsen for up to $1.025 billion, plus up to $33.0 million in net milestone payments retained by Merrimack pursuant to Merrimack's license and collaboration agreement with Shire. A special meeting of Merrimack's stockholders is scheduled for March 30, 2017 to consider and vote on the asset sale. Merrimack anticipates completing the asset sale shortly after approval of the asset sale at the special meeting.
• Upon the closing of the asset sale, Merrimack will receive a $575.0 million upfront cash payment from Ipsen (subject to a working capital adjustment as provided in the asset purchase and sale agreement). Merrimack expects to use these proceeds to declare and pay a special cash dividend of at least $200.0 million to stockholders and use an additional $195.1 million to redeem its senior secured notes. Additionally, if the asset sale is consummated and certain milestones are met with Shire, Merrimack expects to receive up to an aggregate of $33.0 million in net milestone payments in 2017. Merrimack believes that these potential cash inflows, along with the completion of the headcount reduction and refocused research and development efforts that were announced in January 2017, will provide financial resources sufficient to fund its operations into the second half of 2019.