Humacyte, Inc. announced last week it is merging with Alpha Healthcare Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: AHAC), a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Shareholders of Humacyte will get an aggregate of 80 million shares of AHAC’s common stock, or roughly $800 million.
Humacyte is a clinical-stage biotechnology platform company developing universally implantable bioengineered human tissue on a commercial scale. The company develops and manufactures acellular tissues to treat a wide range of diseases, injuries and chronic conditions. Humacyte’s initial opportunity, a portfolio of human acellular vessels (HAVs), is currently in late-stage clinical trials targeting multiple vascular applications, including vascular trauma repair, arteriovenous access for hemodialysis, and peripheral arterial disease. Humacyte’s HAVs were the first product to receive the FDA’s Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy expedited review designation and received priority designation for the treatment of vascular trauma by the U.S. Secretary of Defense.
The transaction is expected to provide up to $255 million of cash proceeds, including a fully committed $175 million PIPE and up to $100 million of cash held in the AHAC trust account assuming no redemptions. The PIPE was raised from a broad group of health care investors including Fresenius Medical Care, OrbiMed, Monashee Investment Management, Alexandria Venture Investments, UBS O’Connor, Morgan Creek Capital, and a number of unnamed health care focused funds.
Upon closing of the transaction, AHAC will be renamed Humacyte, Inc. and is expected to be listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “HUMA.”
A number of Biotechnology companies have taken the same approach as Humacyte this year, using a SPAC to go public, according to search results in our Healthcare Deals Database. In early January, Celularity Inc. merged with GX Acquisition Corp. in a $1.25 billion deal, and on February 1, Ensysce Biosciences, Inc. announced a $207 million merger with Leisure Acquisition Corp.
