Mergers with special purpose acquisition corporations (SPACs) have become lucrative financial transactions for biopharmaceutical firms because they can raise significant capital and become publicly traded companies in a single transaction, bypassing the traditional initial public offering path. However, the performance of drug developers that have taken the SPAC route to date has been largely negative, raising the question of how much longer these transactions will be viable financing options.
There also is the question of whether there are enough biopharma firms available to meet SPAC demands. Dozens of SPACs focused on health care and life science opportunities have gone public in the US since the start of 2020 and each one has a limited amount of time to complete a transaction – usually about two years
SPACs, otherwise known as blank check companies, launch IPOs to raise money that they hold in trust until they merge with another entity. The target company uses the SPAC’s cash to fund its ongoing operations and takes over the blank check firm’s stock market listing, going public without having to execute an IPO of its own