Effector Therapeutics, a US-based cancer treatment developer backed by several corporate investors, agreed to a reverse merger with special purpose acquisition company Locust Walk Acquisition Corporation today.
Locust Walk is listed on Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker symbol LWAC having raised $175m in its January 2021 initial public offering, and the reverse merger deal will include $60m private investment in public equity (PIPE) financing and value the combined business at $419m.
The PIPE financing has been committed by investors including SR One, Pfizer Ventures and Alexandria Venture Investments, on behalf of pharmaceutical firms GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer, and real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities
Osage University Partners (OUP), Abingworth, Column Group, US Venture Partners (USVP), Altitude Life Science Ventures, Sectoral Asset Management and BioMed Ventures are also contributing to the PIPE financing.
Founded in 2012, Effector is working on a class of cancer drugs called selective translation regulator inhibitors. It has multiple product candidates in clinical trials and is exploring one candidate as a potential anti-viral therapy in patients with mild to moderate covid-19.
The company had collected $20.4m in funding from unnamed backers in May 2019, according to a securities filing. Alexandria Venture Investments joined Pfizer Ventures, SR One and peers Novartis Venture Fund, AbbVie Biotech Ventures and Astellas Ventures, subsidiaries of Novartis, AbbVie and Astellas respectively, for its $38.6m series C round in 2017.
The series C round also attracted USVP, Abingworth, Column Group, Altitude Life Science Ventures, Sectoral Asset Management and BioMed Ventures.
SR One, AbbVie Biotech Ventures, Astellas Ventures, Novartis Venture Fund, OUP, Abingworth, BioMed, Column Group, USVP, Sectoral, Altitude Life Science and Mission Bay Capital had supplied $56m in series B funding for Effector the previous year.
Effector had already received $45m in series A financing from Novartis Venture Fund, SR One, Astellas Venture Management, USVP, OUP, Abingworth and Mission Bay Capital in 2013.
