In a move straight out of 2021, BridgeBio Oncology is taking the SPAC route to the public markets in a deal with Helix Acquisition Corp. II worth $450 million in proceeds.
If you thought SPACs were dead, BridgeBio Oncology Therapeutics has news. The cancer spinout will flip to the public markets thanks to special purpose acquisition company Helix Acquisition Corp. II in a deal worth $450 million in proceeds.
Helix conducted an initial public offering in February 2024, raising $184 million in the upsized transaction with plans to target a company in the healthcare sector.
BridgeBio Oncology spun out of BridgeBio in May 2024 with $200 million in funding and a mission to develop two KRAS inhibitors. The new company was working on a Phase Ia/Ib trial of BBO-8520 in mutant non-small cell lung cancer.
Now, those clinical efforts will get a big boost thanks to the SPAC deal, which was announced Friday morning. BridgeBio Oncology will receive $196 million from Helix’s trust account, plus $260 million in private investment in public equity (PIPE) financing. The PIPE was led by Cormorant Asset Management with other investors, including funds affiliated with Deerfield Management Company and Novo Holdings.
The newly combined companies will be known as BridgeBio Oncology and trade under the symbol BBOT. The business combination is expected to close in the third quarter of the year. After the closing, BridgeBio Oncology will have access to about $550 million in cash, compared to the $100 million the company already had on hand.
The resulting entity is expected to have a value of $949 million at closing, according to the release.
BridgeBio Oncology will use the funds to support its three lead programs, BBO-8520, BBO-10203 and BBO-11818. The company said that BBO-8520 is indeed moving forward in a Phase I trial called ONKORAS-101 for patients with KRASG12C mutant non-small cell lung cancer. BBO-10203 is being tested in a Phase I trial called BREAKER-101 for locally advanced and unresectable or metastatic HER2+ breast cancer, HR+/HER2- breast cancer, KRAS mutant colorectal cancer and KRAS mutant non-small cell lung cancer. And finally, BBO-11818 is expected to be dosed in a clinical trial in the first half of this year.
SPAC deals were all the rage a few years ago, when myriad blank check companies like Helix emerged to buy into the biotech sector. About 107 SPACs emerged in 2021 alone. But as quickly as the swell of SPAC deals emerged, it faded away. Experts attributed the decline to accounting regulatory changes, new tax rules and higher tax rates.
