Small SPAC Biotech Apexigen To Be Acquired Pyxis Oncology For $16M
$APGN
$PFE
$PYXS
Biotechnology: Pharmaceutical Preparations
Health Care
Biotechnology: Pharmaceutical Preparations
Health Care
- Pyxis Oncology Inc (NASDAQ:PYXS) agreed to acquire Apexigen Inc (NASDAQ:APGN) in an all-stock transaction for an implied value of $0.64 per Apexigen share.
- Apexigen went public in a blank-check deal just last summer.
- For each share of Apexigen, Pyxis Oncology will issue 0.1725 shares of its common stock for a total enterprise value of approximately $16 million.
- In February, Apexigen announced evaluating alternatives and reduced its workforce by 55%.
- "This acquisition uniquely positions Pyxis Oncology at the forefront of antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) innovation by adding humanized antibody generation to our Flexible Antibody Conjugation Technology (FACT) ADC toolkit acquired from Pfizer," said Lara S. Sullivan, President & CEO of Pyxis Oncology.
- Pyxis Oncology ended Q1 FY23 with approximately $150.8 million in cash.
- Effective June 15, 2023, Jay Feingold will step down as Chief Medical Officer to pursue other opportunities. He will remain an advisor to Pyxis Oncology until a successor is named.
- Pyxis Oncology expects to issue approximately 4.4 million shares of its common stock to Apexigen stockholders.
- The transaction is anticipated to close by mid-2023.
- The combined company will trade on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol PYXS. The existing Pyxis Oncology leadership team will continue, including Lara S. Sullivan as President & CEO, Pamela Connealy as CFO & COO, and Jan Pinkas as Chief Scientific Officer.
- In 2021, Pyxis Oncology entered into a worldwide license agreement with Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) for two antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) candidates and a license to Pfizer's ADC technology platform.
- Price Action: APGN shares are up 39.5% at $0.56, and PYXS shares are down 8.92% at $3.40 on the last check Wednesday.