Pyxis Oncology to acquire Apexigen and with it sotigalimab
Pyxis Oncology, Inc. a clinical-stage company focused on developing next-generation therapeutics to target difficult-to-treat cancers, and Apexigen, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing innovative antibody therapeutics for oncology, announced a definitive agreement by which Pyxis Oncology will acquire Apexigen in an all-stock transaction for an implied value of $0.64 per Apexigen share
For each share of Apexigen, Pyxis Oncology will issue 0.1725 shares of its common stock, par value $0.001 per share, for a total enterprise value of approximately $16 million. “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, and expands our clinical pipeline into Phase II in select solid tumor types by leveraging our founding heritage of immuno-oncology expertise—all while maintaining our cash runway into 2025,” said Lara S. Sullivan, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Pyxis Oncology. “Sotigalimab is a CD40 agonist with best-in-class potential. It has demonstrated clear anti-cancer activity in patients who previously progressed on PD-(L)1 inhibitors, with impressive, durable remissions. This activity may not only be synergistic with immune checkpoint inhibitors, but also rescue their activity in patients who are refractory or have relapsed".