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Roquefort Therapeutics PLC on Monday said it entered into heads of terms to buy Coiled Therapeutics Inc, also known as Coiled USA, via a reverse takeover.
The London-based biotechnology company, which focuses on developing medicines in the immunology and oncology sectors, said it plans to pay £30 million upfront, payable in shares.
Roquefort said Coiled USA is a spin-out from A2A Pharmaceuticals, which holds exclusive worldwide rights to AO-252: a novel first-in-class first-in-human new drug alternative targeting the TACC3 protein to treat cancer.
It added that AO-252 is currently in a phase 1 trial in the US in advanced solid tumours and is showing ‘encouraging’ efficacy, responses and clinical benefit with a very benign safety profile.
Roquefort said: ‘AO-252 has shown strong preclinical efficacy with complete tumour regression as monotherapy in ovarian, triple negative breast, endometrial, gastric, and prostate cancers with strong efficacy in in-vivo brain metastases as well.’
Roquefort Executive Chair Stephen West said: ‘We believe this is a fantastic opportunity to pivot Roquefort Therapeutics from being a pre-clinical company into a clinical stage company creating a clear path to value inflection.’
Upon completion of the planned reverse takeover, Roquefort’s shares on London’s Main Market will be cancelled.
Coiled USA Chief Executive Officer Sridhar Vempati said: ‘Merging Coiled USA into Roquefort Therapeutics marks a major step for our company. In addition to progressing the clinical development of AO-252, Roquefort’s Therapeutics’ STAT-6 program is a promising addition to our pipeline.
‘We believe that AO-252 is a novel and potentially transformative treatment across multiple cancer indications.’
Roquefort shares jumped 42% to 2.35 pence each on Monday morning in London.
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