Boston, May 20, 2026, 10:04 (EDT)
Apellis Pharmaceuticals is off the Nasdaq tape now that Biogen has finished its buyout. The focus moves to Biogen and if it can pull enough revenue from Syfovre and Empaveli to make the acquisition pay.
APLS shares aren’t in the public’s hands anymore. Investors got $41 in cash per share plus a CVR tied to sales of Syfovre, Apellis’ drug for geographic atrophy, a type of advanced dry macular degeneration. The CVR could pay more if certain sales goals are met. Biogen said Apellis is now a wholly owned unit. Apellis shares stopped trading on Nasdaq after the deal closed.
Biogen shares rose 0.9% to $192.34 early Wednesday in U.S. trading. For Apellis, market screens continued to show an APLS quote at $41.03 with the most recent trade marked May 14 UTC, matching the halt seen after the merger and not reflecting current public trading.
Biogen said 105,687,831 shares of Apellis — around 82.4% of the stock — were tendered before the offer ended late May 13, according to a final tender-offer update. Biogen’s acquisition arm accepted those shares for payment on May 14 after meeting the offer terms.
The fixed part of the price is up front; the rest is up in the air. According to an Apellis filing, each CVR could pay $2 if Syfovre brings in at least $1.5 billion in annual global net sales in certain years, and another $2 if it hits $2 billion. If those milestones aren’t met on time, there’s a path that could lead to a $4 payout by 2031.
Biogen and Apellis built the deal around Syfovre and Empaveli. The two drugs made $689 million in net product revenue in 2025 and were seen growing in the mid-to-high teens through at least 2028. Biogen also gets Apellis’s nephrology platform, which it plans to use for felzartamab, a Phase 3 kidney candidate. “The purchase immediately advances Biogen’s transformation,” Biogen CEO Christopher Viehbacher said in March. Apellis CEO Cedric Francois called the deal “a compelling outcome for our shareholders.” Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Apellis in its last quarterly report before the deal posted $192.0 million in first-quarter U.S. net product sales from its two drugs. Syfovre brought in $150.7 million and Empaveli $41.3 million. The split lays out the CVR issue: the extra payout is heavily tied to Syfovre getting a lot bigger than it was on its own.
Viehbacher told Reuters in March, “what really matters is the intrinsic value,” pointing to “a lot of value in that kidney franchise in particular” for Biogen. Back then, BMO Capital analyst Evan Seigerman called the deal one that “could meaningfully change how investors think about near-term revenue growth” while Biogen deals with falling multiple sclerosis sales. Reuters
Competition is mostly focused in the eye segment. Astellas, which markets Izervay for geographic atrophy, recently said it would share long-term Izervay results and new investigational data at ARVO. The company calls geographic atrophy a progressive disease that may cause irreversible loss of vision.
But the risk is clear. The Apellis filing notes there’s no guarantee on hitting any CVR milestone, so that $4 a share is still up in the air. If Syfovre sales slip, rivals grab share, or doctors avoid more injections, ex-Apellis holders might see just the cash from the deal.
Biogen is now the next stop for updates, not APLS calls. The company plans to update its financial guidance when it posts Q2 earnings in July. For ex-Apellis holders, what matters now are Syfovre sales targets.
