Goodwin Advises Oak Hill Bio on $175 Million Business Combination Agreement With Research Alliance Corporation III to Create Publicly Listed Rare Disease Biotechnology Company
The Life Sciences team advised OHB Pediatrics Ltd. d/b/a Oak Hill Bio on entering into a definitive business combination agreement with RACC, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) sponsored by RA Capital Management. The proposed transaction is expected to provide Oak Hill Bio with approximately $175 million in gross proceeds before transaction expenses, including $75 million of cash in RACC’s trust account that is fully backstopped by RA Capital and a $100 million committed private financing. Of the $100 million private financing, $45 million was funded by RA Capital at signing, pursuant to a SAFE investment in Oak Hill Bio, with the remaining amount expected to be funded at closing through an oversubscribed PIPE in RACC at $10.00 per share.
Oak Hill Bio is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on acquiring and developing promising therapeutics for rare diseases with significant unmet need that have been deprioritized by pharmaceutical companies. The company’s lead program is rugonersen (OHB-724), an investigational antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) in Phase 3 clinical development as a potential best-in-class treatment for Angelman syndrome, a devastating neurodevelopmental disorder with no approved disease-modifying therapies. Oak Hill Bio is the trading name for OHB Pediatrics Ltd. It was formed in 2024 as a subsidiary of Oak Hill Bio Holdings (formerly known as Oak Hill Bio Ltd).
The Goodwin team was led by Bill Collins, Jocelyn Arel, Marianne Sarrazin, Justin Anslow, Wei Xu, Pia Kaur, Evan Lee, and Alex Conrad Schubert, and included Graham Defries, Harriet Worthington, Michael Grainger, Kerry Corrigan, Alan Wang, Sarah Angela Solomon, Susan Lee, Matthew Wetzel, Daniel Karelitz, Chase Gorland, Dulcie Daly, Anna Humphrey, Natascha George, James Devendorf, Jacob Osborn, Gozde Guckaya, Lee Douthitt, and Akshay Chauhan.
For more information on the deal, please read the press release.