Beam Therapeutics Adds To Drug Delivery With $120M GuideTx Buy - Beam Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BEAM)

Beam Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: BEAM) acquires Guide Therapeutics (GuideTx), a developer of nonviral drug delivery vehicles for genetic medicines, in an all-stock deal for $120 million upfront. GuideTx shareholders could also yield up to $320 million more in milestone payments.
Beam is betting that adding GuideTx’s lipid nanoparticle (LNP) drug delivery vehicles to the mix will boost its genetic medicines’ reach into new tissues and disease areas.
GuideTx’s LNP screening technology tags nanoparticles with DNA barcodes allows hundreds of nanoparticles to be screened in one experiment, in a single animal.
So far, GuideTx has identified a library of lipids and lipid formulations that could ramp up the development of gene editing treatments to tissues other than the liver.
Price Action: BEAM is down 14.4% at $94.56 in market trading hours on the last check Tuesday.