The M&A and Life Sciences teams advised longtime client AVROBIO, Inc. (Nasdaq: AVRO) on its entry into a definitive merger agreement to combine with Tectonic Therapeutic in an all-stock transaction. Upon completion of the merger, the combined company is expected to operate under the name Tectonic Therapeutic, Inc. and trade on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “TECX”.
In connection with the merger, Tectonic has raised or entered into agreements for a $130.7 million private placement with a syndicate of new and existing leading life sciences investors, led by a major mutual fund, TAS Partners, 5AM Ventures, EcoR1 Capital, Polaris Partners, funds and accounts advised by Farallon Capital Management, Vida Ventures, PagsGroup, and other investors. The combined company is expected to have approximately $165 million of cash and cash equivalents at closing, inclusive of the proceeds to be received in the private placement. These proceeds will be used to advance Tectonic’s pipeline through multiple clinical data catalysts and are expected to fund the combined company’s operations into mid-2027. The private placement is expected to close in conjunction with the merger in the second quarter of 2024.
AVROBIO is a gene therapy company with a purpose to free people from a lifetime of genetic disease. The company has been focused on developing potentially curative HSC gene therapies to treat patients with rare diseases following a single dose treatment regimen.
Tectonic Therapeutic, co-founded by Andrew Kruse and Tim Springer of Harvard Medical School, is transforming the discovery of antibodies and other biologic drugs targeting GPCRs to develop novel therapies for patients inadequately served by current treatments. With its proprietary GEODeTM platform, Tectonic aims to unlock the therapeutic utility of some of the most difficult receptors in the class, where small molecule pharmacology may be intractable.
The Goodwin team was led by Mitchell S. Bloom, Robert Masella, James Ding, and Adam Johnson, and included Immanuel Kim, Monika Chawla, Zachary Ota, Jessica Park, Stefanie Hartford, Daniel Karelitz, Cecily Xi, Caroline Bullerjahn, Jordan Benson, James Mattus, Andre Amorim, James Oh, Timothy Holahan, Ana Victoria Alvarado, Simone Waterbury, Arman Oruc, Eram Khan, Elliot Silver, Charlie Stewart, Matthew Wetzel, Heath Ingram, Julie Tibbets, Elizabeth Mulkey, Catherine McCarty, Steven Poynter, Stephanie Dusaban, Jacqueline Klosek, Alex Intile, Richard Matheny, Gozde Guckaya, Kathleen Kean, Alison Liou, Lauren Avery, Brian Mukherjee, Nathan Brodeur, Kevin Grumberg and Timothy Kim.
For additional details on the transaction, please read the press release.