For a while, special purpose acquisition companies were biotech’s hot ticket to the public markets. While interest in this path has died down in recent years, BridgeBio’s former cancer unit thinks it could work for them.
BridgeBio Oncology Therapeutics, which is working on a pipeline of small-molecule therapeutics targeting RAS and PI3Kα malignancies, is planning to merge with publicly listed blank check company Helix Acquisition Corp. II, according to a Feb. 28 release.
The biotech—which spun out of BridgeBio Pharma in May 2024—has $100 million to hand, while Helix is bringing $196 million to the table. Combined with $260 million from a planned concurrent PIPE financing of its common stock, the merged company should have access to around $550 million in hard cash.
That financing will be led by Cormorant Asset Management and will see the likes of Novo Holdings, ADAR1 Capital Management, Omega Funds and BioCapital Advisors, to name a few, scooping up the stock.
The proceeds will go toward pushing BBOT’s three programs through early-stage clinical trials. They include the KRAS inhibitor BBO-8520, which is undergoing a phase 1 trial for non-small cell lung cancer. There’s also BBO-10203, which is designed to inhibit RAS-driven PI3Kα-AKT signaling in tumors and is in a phase 1 study for breast, colorectal and non-small cell lung cancers.
A KRAS inhibitor called BBO-11818 is also being readied to enter the clinic in the first half of the year.
“This financing and transaction mark a significant milestone for our company,” BBOT CEO Eli Wallace, Ph.D., said. “We believe this transaction is the optimal path to advance our programs and make a meaningful impact on patients affected by deadly cancers.”
Helix went public a year ago via a $184 million IPO and with the stated aim of finding a biotech to merge with. The Boston-headquartered SPAC is sponsored by fund manager Cormorant.
“BBOT's team has some of the brightest minds in oncology, with a proven track record of developing new medicines,” Bihua Chen, who is CEO of both Cormorant and Helix, said in this morning’s release.
“The company’s pipeline has the potential for paradigm-shifting impact on the treatment of some of the highest prevalence malignancies and we look forward to seeing patient impact further materialize as the clinical trials move forward,” Chen added.
BBOT’s merger is a rare example of a SPAC deal in biotech in 2025. After a number of high-profile announcements were made in late 2022, the reverse merger model once again dropped off in 2023, with a few exceptions, such as cardiovascular-focused Medera’s reverse merger with Keen Vision Acquisition in September 2024.