Benzinga | Feb 23, 2021 01:49PM EST

Beam Therapeutics Adds To Drug Delivery With $120M GuideTx Buy

* 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.