Cancer Biotech Tango Therapeutics Picks Boxer Capital's SPAC To Go Public Via $353M Merger

• The latest biotech-SPAC deal has arrived with Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Tango Therapeutics announcing its reverse merger with Boxer Capital’s blank-check company BCTG Acquisition Corp BCTG.


• With a spotlight on three lead programs, Tango expects total proceeds of $353 million in the deal, including around $167 million held in the SPAC and an additional $186 million in PIPE financing.


• When the deal closes, Tango’s stock is expected to list on the NASDAQ under the stock symbol “TNGX.”


• Tango develops drugs based on synthetic lethality, a concept that involves tapping into a genetic vulnerability in cancer.


• Its focus is on developing drugs that counteract the loss of tumor suppressor genes and reverse cancer cells’ ability to evade the immune system.


• Lead program TNG908 is designed to block PRMT5, an enzyme expressed at high levels in tumors and whose synthetic lethal pair is a gene called MTAP.


• The company plans to file FDA investigational new drug (IND) application by the end of this year.


• A second IND filing is planned for next year for an inhibitor of a cancer protein called USP1, which Tango intends to develop for BRCA1-mutant breast, ovarian, and prostate cancers.


• The third program for an undisclosed target is expected to reach the clinic in 2023 for lung cancer characterized by a mutation to the STK11 gene.


• The company also plans to continue work on preclinical compounds in its pipeline to file a new IND every 12 to 18 months.


• In 2018, Tango signed Gilead Sciences Inc GILD to work together on five drug targets. Last year the companies expanded the pact to encompass 15 targets, which excludes Tango’s three lead candidates.


• Tango and BCTG have scheduled a conference call today at 10 a.m. E.T.


• Price Action: BCTG shares are up 5.26% at $11.80 on the last check Wednesday.




 
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See also: How to Invest in SPACs