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With $850m, Nuvation Aims To Speed Novel Cancer Drugs To Patients

As With Medivation, David Hung Takes New Venture Public In SPAC Merger

 
• By Mandy Jackson

Nuvation started in 2018 and raised a $275m series A round in 2019. Now it is merging with the EcoR1 Capital-sponsored SPAC Panacea Acquisition Corp. and raising $500m in equity capital.

Business growth
Nuvation's growth is powered by veterans of Medivation and other high-profile companies • Source: Shutterstock

Nuvation Bio, Inc. founder and CEO David Hung is taking his two-year-old cancer drug development start-up public in a reverse merger with Panacea Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition corporation (SPAC) sponsored by EcoR1 Capital, following a similar playbook to his last successful venture – Medivation, Inc., the developer of prostate cancer blockbuster Xtandi (enzalutamide), which Pfizer Inc. acquired for $14.3bn in 2016.

Nuvation began looking for novel cancer drug candidates in 2018 and closed a $275m series A round in 2019

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