Veraxa, a Swiss biotech, intends to merge with Voyager Acquisition, a healthcare-focused special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), in order to go public in the US.

Veraxa will contribute almost $1.3 billion in stock under the terms of the agreement, which was made public on Wednesday. Its shareholders will get around 130 million shares in the new company at a price of $10 each, and they will all roll over 100% of their ownership without receiving any cash proceeds. Assuming that Voyager's shareholders do not redeem its shares, the pro forma equity value of the merged company after closure is projected to be $1.64 billion. Veraxa will have access to about $253 million in cash kept in Voyager's trust when the deal is finalized.

The combined business will concentrate on developing Veraxa's current antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) and bispecific T-cell engager assets for reliable tumor therapies. It intends to list on the NASDAQ under the symbol "VERX. As evidenced by numerous deals worth over $1 billion each since 2023, Voyager's board chair Warren Hosseinion reaffirmed their conviction that next-generation ADCs and bispecifics would keep revolutionizing oncology. The deal, which is anticipated to finalize in the fourth quarter, has received unanimous approval from the boards of both businesses.

With nine programs in various stages of development, Veraxa's primary asset, VX-A901, is presently undergoing Phase I testing for leukemia. This FLT3-targeting Fc-enhanced therapeutic antibody showed strong anti-cancer properties and showed promise as a foundational treatment for other treatment modalities. By 2029, the business expects to have three candidates in the clinic.

Christoph Antz, CEO of Veraxa, emphasized that side effects frequently restrict the best dosage for cancer treatments. The company's newest platform innovation, the BiTAC [bi-targeted antibody cytotoxicity] format, is intended to specifically address this problem and produce first-in-class drug candidates with previously unheard-of safety and efficacy.

The biotech is also soliciting new and current investors for a crossover funding round, which is expected to close prior to the completion of the merger agreement. The two largest owners in Veraxa are the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (including its technology transfer division, EMBLEM) and Xlife Sciences.