Special purpose acquisition corporations (SPACs) focused on health care investments, including biopharmaceutical opportunities, continue to go public in the US and now they are putting the money they have raised to work. Four health care SPACs launched initial public offerings during the week of 19-23 October and two others announced mergers with biopharma companies.
Finance Watch: A SPACtacular Week For Biopharma Deals And Dollars
Public Company Edition: Four health care special purpose acquisition vehicles went public and two others announced mergers, but only one biopharma firm priced an IPO during the week of 19-23 October. Replimune’s $250m offering led recent FOPOs.

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There were six biopharma initial public offerings on Western stock exchanges, including five in the US, during the first quarter, but plunging stock values could halt further IPOs.
Public Company Edition: Stock valuations are falling due to political, economic and regulatory uncertainty, resulting in fewer large public offerings, more alternative financings and cost cuts. Carisma, Tenaya, BioAtla, Arbutus, Nkarta, Alector and Adaptimmune announced layoffs.
CEO Kris Elverum told Scrip about the start-up’s platform for editing RNA to correct genetic variants that cause harm and to reproduce healthy variants as a means of treating disease.
The four-year-old firm said it plans to advance programs toward the clinic from the funding round, which comes just over a year after signing two major pharma partnerships.
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The biotech has rejected a takeover bid from Nordic Capital but a sale to private equity could be a solution to the public market's continued reluctance to adequately value PureTech’s hub-and-spoke business model.
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