Move Over Roivant, Nuvation: EQRx Reveals Biggest Biopharma SPAC Merger This Year

EQRx, Inc. unveiled its bold mission to create drugs against known targets at radically lower prices less than two years ago, but, as president and chief operating officer – and soon to be CEO – Melanie Nallicheri points out, it takes a lot of money to build a company at scale to execute on that mission. That is why EQRx announced on 6 August it is merging with a special purpose acquisition corporation (SPAC), CM Life Sciences III Inc., and launching a concurrent private investment in public equity (PIPE) financing that together will raise $1.8bn.

The SPAC merger will give EQRx the resources it needs to develop its current portfolio of 10 clinical and preclinical drug candidates, and to bring in more candidates through business development