Blade Therapeutics, a US-based fibrosis treatment developer backed by pharmaceutical firms Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis and Pfizer, has agreed to a reverse merger with special purpose acquisition company Biotech Acquisition Company.
The merger is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022, whereupon Biotech Acquisition Company will be rebranded to Blade Biotherapeutics and inherit Biotech Acquisition Company’s listing on the Nasdaq Capital Market. The combined company is expected to have a valuation of nearly $353m.
Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer subsidiary Pfizer Ventures are among the investors anchoring a $24.3m private investment in public equity (PIPE) financing supporting the deal, as are Deerfield Management, MPM Capital and Osage University Partners (OUP).
Founded in 2015, Blade is developing therapies for lung, liver and cardiac fibrosis as well as neurodegenerative diseases. It will use the proceeds from the reverse merger to support preclinical, clinical and manufacturing activities for its lead assets and expand its drug pipeline.
The company closed a total of $50m in funding from unnamed investors in October 2019, according to regulatory filings. It had completed a $45m series B round in 2017 featuring Pfizer Ventures, Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis’s Institutes of Biomedical Research, OUP, Deerfield and MPM Capital.
OUP and MPM Capital had previously supplied $6.5m in series A funding for the company two years earlier.
