Dow Jones reports that biotech hedge fund manager RA Capital Management’s shareholders may be in world of pain after the Sequenom Inc.’s (SQNM) stock plummeted following news that employee mistakes have invalidated the company’s positive trials for its noninvasive prenatal Down Syndrome test.
Shares of SQNM sank from a Wednesday high of $15.00 to a Thursday close of $3.62, effectively wiping away $690 million in market value in a day. According to its most recent SEC filing, RA Capital held over 11% of SQNM’s shares out as of 12/31/08. At the time of the filing, the SQNM position represented almost 50% of RA Capital’s total $235 million portfolio of US Equities. If all 3 of SQNM’s top 12/31/08 shareholders still held their positions yesterday, they would have lost a combined $335 million since the beginning of the year (Ridgeback Capital Management - $171mm, RA Capital - $95.7mm, and Sectoral Asset Management - $68.5mm)
RA Capital was founded in 2002 by Dr. Peter Kolchinsky. Before founding RA Capital, Dr. Kolchinsky wrote the Entrepreneur's Guide to a Biotech Startup. Ridgeback Capital is a hedge fund manager that was founded in 2006 by Wayne Holman, who previously ran Steven A. Cohen’s investment subsidiary Sigma Capital. Sectoral Asset Management (SAM) is a Quebec, Canada-based asset manager that was founded in 2000 by Jerome Pfund. |
