Cytovia CEO Daniel Teper/Courtesy Cytovia Therapeutics
Cytovia HoldingsA biopharma company that focuses on natural killer cells (NK) has announced a Fusionr with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Isleworth Healthcare Acquisition Corp. through which it will go public.
Al Weiss, who was the president of Worldwide Operations at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts before he was replaced by Bob Whitehead (a long-standing pharmaceutical executive and co-founder and now CEO of Isleworth). Sprout Pharmaceuticals And Slate Pharmaceuticals. Whitehead has also held various positions with Auxilium, Prestwick PharmaceuticalsAnd ZymoGenetics.
SPACs are sometimes called blank-check companies. They are shell companies. raise moneyTo quickly buy a company and make it public.
SPAC deals seem to be continuing a trend. Coeptis Therapeutics will launch its April 20th deal. FusionSPAC Bull Horn Holdings will merge with Bull Horn Holdings, a deal that is estimated to be worth approximately $175million. Bull Horn will merge with Coeptis, and the new name of the company will be Coeptis Therapeutics Holdings, Inc., which trades on the Nasdaq using the COEP ticker symbol.
Last year MarkedA number of large SPAC deals have been made, including 23andMea deal with VG Acquisition Corp., a SPAC sponsored Sir Richard Bransons Virgin Group. Another important deal was Ginkgo BioworksFusion with SPAC Soaring Eagle Acquisition Corp. – The combined company now has a value of $17.5 Billion.
After the merger, Isleworth is renamed Cytovia Therapeutics. The NASDAQ will continue to list the merged companies under the ticker symbols INKC or INKCW. This symbol represents common stocks and warrants. Dr. Daniel Teper will lead the combined company as chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Cytovias.
Teper stated that we are grateful for the strong support of existing and new investors as well as the team at Isleworth made up of seasoned entrepreneurs. This transaction will allow Cytovia to accelerate its vision to develop NK therapeutics to cure cancer. Our preclinical data, presented at AACR, is encouraging. This supports the development of our iPSC derived NK cell (iNK) as well as Flex-NK Cell engagers to treat Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
Cytovia’s headquarters are in Aventura, Fla. It runs research-and-development labs in Natick, Mass., and a cGMP cell manufacturing plant in Puerto Rico. The company has many scientific alliances, including with Cellectis, CytoImmune Therapy, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem INTERNET and many others.
Lexology Not noted Although there are still many private-held life sciences companies preparing to go public via the traditional IPO route for their debuts, the pace of new offerings has slowed down. There were 66 life sciences-related IPOs last year, and 48 in the second. This means that 2022 is significantly behind last year’s pace.
A Fenwick survey in January 2022 of life sciences investors and executives As an optionThey are optimistic about a rebound over the next five years. At the height of the pandemic so much attention was paid to Moderna, Pfizer, BioNTech, NovavaxInvestors were eager to invest in this sector, as well as many other life science companies. Some of that enthusiasm has declined as not enough effective therapies have been developed to reward it. Supply chain issues and inflation, decreased liquidity, and unpredictable interest rates are all factors that play a role. According to executives surveyed, inflation is the biggest challenge at the moment.
As only 25% of life sciences executives and 40% of investors reported feeling optimistic, the majority of those surveyed don’t believe there will be a rebound in this year. However, 51% of executives surveyed and 48% among investors believe that a turnaround will occur within the next two to five year.