Biotech Acquisition Company and Blade Therapeutics Enter Definitive Merger Agreement
Biotech Acquisition Company, a publically traded special purpose acquisition company affiliated with SPRIM Global Investments
On 8th November, Biotech Acquisition Company, a publically traded special purpose acquisition company affiliated with SPRIM Global Investments, and Blade Therapeutics announced that they have entered a definitive merger agreement. Blade Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company located in South San Francisco, California.
The merger transaction is expected to be closed in the first quarter of 2022 and after the completion of the transaction, the new company will be named Blade Biotherapeutics, Inc. The new entity is expected to be listed on Nasdaq under the symbol "BBTX."
Michael Shleifer, Ph.D., chairman and CEO of Biotech Acquisition Company, co-founder and managing partner of SPRIM Global Investments, and a board nominee of the combined company, said, “Biotech Acquisition Company and SPRIM have leveraged deep biopharmaceutical expertise to bring an important biotechnology opportunity to investors. We believe that the proposed merger of Blade and BAC will build near- and long-term value."
Blade expects to advance differentiated pipeline of oral, small-molecule therapies with diseasemodifying potential. The new therapies are expected to be with a non-competitive autotaxin inhibitor and inhibitors of dimeric calpains designed for the potential treatment of lung, liver and cardiac fibrosis or neurodegenerative diseases.
Wendye Robbins, M.D., president and CEO of Blade and a board nominee of the combined company, said, "We view Blade's science as world-class, with a clinical-stage pipeline targeting diseases that remain undertreated. We believe that this proposed merger will advance our mission to bring lifechanging treatments to patients with devastating diseases."
Cudetaxestat is the lead investigational medicine of Blade. It is a non-competitive, reversible inhibitor of autotaxin and is expected to enter the phase 2 clinical study patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in the first half of 2022. Cudetaxestat has demonstrated direct anti-fibrotic activity and differentiating preclinical and biochemical characteristics.
BLD-2184 is the lead product candidate for Blade Therapeutics in neurodegeneration. It is a CNS- penetrant calpain inhibitor as a potential treatment option for genetic poly-Q neurodegenerative conditions such as Huntington's disease and spinocerebellar ataxia type 3, like SCA3 or Machado-Joseph disease, and other neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson's disease, Lewy body dementia, and multiple system atrophy.
The combined company will be led by Wendye Robbins, M.D., as president and CEO, and Jean-Frédéric Viret, Ph.D., as CFO. Mark Timney, Blade's current chairman of the board, will be nominated as chairman of the combined company's board of directors.