After 2021 SPAC Bubble, How Did These 6 Biotechs Fare?

2021 was a wild year for the biotech public stock market. Across the U.S. and Europe, more than 100 startups went for their initial public offerings while another large batch took a different track—merging with a special purpose acquisition company, also known as the SPAC track.

Also called blank-check companies, SPACs work by raising capital via an IPO that they then let sit in trust accounts. Eventually, SPACs can leverage this funding to merge with a promising private company in a deal that not only brings the target company to the public stock market but infuses it with a hefty sum of money.

During the heyday of 2021—when the industry was flush with pandemic-driven investments—SPACs presented a quick and comparatively easy way to raise money and go public. SPACs typically come with lower upfront costs than traditional initial public offerings (IPOs) and allow companies to collect even more capital through private investment in public equity (PIPE) placements. IPOs, on the other hand, take longer to complete and are burdened by upfront underwriting and legal fees.

But the market has since cooled and contracted. With investors driven away by macro-level uncertainties, dozens of companies have already closed shop while many more are in a precarious position.

In this piece, BioSpace checks in on some standout SPACs of 2021, looking at how they’ve fared over the years, and how they’re weathering the current market turbulence.

SPAC Date: October 2021
Value: $611 million

Roivant debuted on Nasdaq on Oct. 1, 2021, via a merger with Montes Archimedes Acquisition Corp. The deal gave the burgeoning biotech access to the blank-check company’s $411 million trust fund and $200 million in a PIPE placement.

All told, the SPAC deal put Roivant’s cash position at around $2.5 billion.

Roivant has used this money to step-up its subsidiary strategy—forming nimble and focused “Vants” dedicated to developing novel therapies. Months after completing its SPAC, for instance, the biotech teamed up with Pfizer and in June 2022 launched Priovant Therapeutics to advance brepocitinib, an orally available and selective TYK2 and JAK1 inhibitor for the treatment of autoimmune disorders such as systemic lupus erythematosus and dermatomyositis.

Later that year, Roivant and Pfizer debuted another Vant, this time to work on an anti-TL1A antibody for ulcerative colitis. The subsidiary, dubbed Telavant, was acquired by Roche in October 2023 for $7.1 billion upfront.

Also in 2022, Roivant scored its first FDA approval for Dermavant’s VTAMA cream, indicated for plaque psoriasis in adults. Two years later, in September 2024, Organon acquired Dermavant in a potential $1.2 billion agreement. That same month, Roivant launched another subsidiary, called Pulmovant, tasked with working on mosliciguat, an inhalable therapy for pulmonary hypertension associated with interstitial lung disease.

Since debuting, Roivant’s shares have increased 28% with a market cap of $8.36 billion.

SPAC Date: August 2021
Value: $1.8 billion

EQRx launched in 2020 with $200 million in series A money and a lofty goal: change the drug discovery process to develop medicines that are more affordable. In August 2021, CM Life Sciences III, Inc threw its weight behind this mission with a hefty SPAC deal, not only carrying EQRx to the public stock exchange but also providing a $1.8 billion cash infusion.

The problems started over a year later, in November 2022, when development plans for the PD-L1 blocker sugemalimab hit a rough patch. In talks with the FDA, EQRx was told that interim findings from its Phase III GEMSTONE-302 trial, conducted in China, would not be enough to support a regulatory filing for U.S. approval. The company at the time decided that there was “no commercially viable path” for sugemalimab in the U.S. EQRx was forced to abandon plans for a test in stage IV non-small cell lung cancer.

A few months later, in February 2023, in an effort to “increase . . . operational efficiencies and streamline expenses,” EQRx downsized by 18%, a move that the company expected to generate $18 million in annualized savings.

The company ramped up the restructuring process in May that same year with a sweeping business reset, laying off half its headcount and junking another cancer asset. Most notably, EQRx shifted focus to become a more cookie-cutter drug development company, “developing clinically differentiated, high-value medicines,” then-CEO Melanie Nallicheri said in a statement at the time.

But even this pivot failed to turn EQRx’s business around. In August 2023, EQRx was absorbed by Revolution Medicines and is no longer trading on Nasdaq.

SPAC Date: June 2021
Value: $592 million

The last few months have been difficult for DNA testing company 23andMe. In March, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, seeking for court supervision as it sells its business.

This is a far cry from four years earlier, when 23andMe debuted on the public stock market in a SPAC deal with VG Acquisition Corp in June 2021. The agreement raised a gross of $592 million for the consumer genetics company and bumped up its value to $3.5 billion. Shortly after landing on Nasdaq, 23andMe hit its peak market value of approximately $6 billion.

Things soon went south, however, as 23andMe struggled to cope with rising interest rates and sales slumps. By the end of fiscal year 2022, the company hit a $184 million net loss, which ballooned to $312 million in 2023. To stanch the cash bleed, 23andMe in November 2024 put in motion a sweeping restructuring initiative, involving a 40% layoff and a pivot away from drug development efforts. The company at the time expected these measures to generate $35 million in savings annually.

Aside from a capital crunch, 23andMe was beset with privacy problems. In October 2023, hackers breached the company’s system and were able to access data of some 6.9 million people. In June this year, 23andMe and its sale were at the heart of a Senate Oversight Committee hearing that highlighted “serious national security” concerns over Americans’ genetic data.

That same month, the company was finally acquired for $305 million by the nonprofit TTAM Research Institute, owned by Anne Wojcicki, 23andMe’s former CEO. Wojcicki has pledged to comply with 23andMe’s privacy policies and has made “binding commitments” to add certain safeguards to further protect customers and their genetic data.

After being bought by TTAM, 23andMe is no longer on the public stock market.

SPAC Date: August 2021
Value: $342 million

Tango Therapeutics danced into the public stock market almost four years ago when it merged with BCTG Acquisition Corp. The deal gave the Massachusetts-based biotech $342 million, including $156 million from BCTG’s trust account and roughly $186 million from a PIPE placement.

At the time of its Nasdaq debut, Tango’s cash position was at $515 million.

In the years since, the biotech has worked on its pipeline of precision cancer therapies, though this effort has not been without its stumbles. In May 2024, Tango shelved the USP1 inhibitor TNG348, which was being testing in early-stage studies for solid tumors. The decision to scrap the asset was driven by grade 3 and 4 liver function abnormalities, which Tango detected in patients who had been on the trial for more than eight weeks.

Tango planned to assess TNG348 as a monotherapy and as part of a combination regimen with AstraZeneca and Merck’s PARP inhibitor Lynparza, though the company never had the chance.

A few months later, in November 2024, Tango was forced to abandon another asset, this time the PRMT5 blocker TNG908. The molecule, designed to get past the blood-brain barrier, was being trialed for glioblastoma, but a Phase I/II study showed that TNG908 “did not meet the pharmacokinetic exposure threshold for clinical efficacy,” according to a company announcement at the time.

Discontinuing TNG908 allowed Tango to fully resource its other PRMT5 blocker TNG462, which is now the biotech’s lead asset. The company is developing the asset for pancreatic and lung cancers, as well as other non-CNS malignancies. Phase I/II data are expected later this year, according to Tango’s most recent quarterly report, released last month, after which it expects to launch a registrational trial for pancreatic cancer next year.

Since going public, Tango’s stocks have declined 33%. The biotech has a market cap of $745.4 million.

SPAC Date: July 2020
Value: $440 million

Cerevel was a little early to the SPAC party as compared to the other entries on this list, merging in July 2020 with blank-check firm Arya Sciences Acquisition Corp II. The SPAC at the time had $150 million in trust, which Cerevel’s backers—a high-profile group including Bain Capital and Pfizer—supplemented with $320 million in a PIPE placement.

All told, Cerevel’s public stock debut a few months later was accompanied by a net cash infusion of approximately $440 million.

This money helped the Massachusetts biotech establish itself as a leader in the neurology space, anchored by its next-generation antipsychotic schizophrenia drug emraclidine. Phase Ib data published in December 2022 showed that the drug led to “clinically meaningful and statistically significant improvements” in positive and negative symptoms after six weeks of treatment, as compared with placebo.

These findings, though early, were enough to not only land emraclidine on BioSpace’s watchlist for neuropsychiatric drugs on August 2023 but also attract the attention of AbbVie. In December that year, the industry giant dropped an eye-watering $8.7 billion to acquire Cerevel, winning emraclidine and the biotech’s rich pipeline of other investigational neuro assets.

The bet seemed to pay off quickly, with a Phase III readout in April 2024 showing that its dopamine receptor partial agonist tavapadon elicited significant motor control improvements in patients with Parkinson’s disease. But in November last year, emraclidine returned back-to-back Phase II failures in schizophrenia, delivering a 12% hit to AbbVie’s shares. The pharma has since recalibrated its program for emraclidine and will take the molecule forward as part of an adjunct regimen.

AbbVie’s acquisition of Cerevel closed in August 2024, officially taking the neuro biotech off the public stock exchange just over four years since its debut.

SPAC Date: March 2020
Value: $250 million

In two important ways, Immatics’ SPAC journey mirrors that of Cerevel’s: The cancer-focused biotech launched onto the public stock market in 2020, and it did so by merging with an Arya entity. In the case of Immatics, its SPAC was funded by the original Arya Sciences Acquisition Corp., which in March 2020 offered its $148 million trust fund to take the biotech public.

The arrangement was completed in July that same year, with Immatics bagging $253 million in total, including proceeds from a PIPE financing.

In the years since its Nasdaq debut, Immatics mustered support from many other biopharma companies through partnerships.

Chief of these is Bristol Myers Squibb, which in December 2021 paid $150 million upfront and promised up to $770 million in milestones to co-develop the T cell receptor (TCR) bispecific antibody IMA401. Some six months later, in June 2022, BMS doubled down on its commitment to Immatics by paying $60 million to expand their existing arrangement to go after “multiple” off-the-shelf TCR or CAR T programs. Under the expanded contract, Immatics is eligible for up to $700 million per program.

In May 2023, BMS exercised its first license option under the Immatics deal, gaining worldwide license to a novel TCR-T product candidate, in turn giving the biotech $15 million in exercise fees. A few months later, the pharma made a $35 million equity investment in Immatics.

Aside from BMS, Immatics also struck up an R&D deal with Moderna in September 2023, under which the companies will explore using mRNA technology for the in vivo expression of TCR bispecifics. The collaboration gave Immatics $120 million upfront plus the possibility of more than $1.7 billion in milestones.

Since its SPAC, Immatics’ shares have fallen 66%. The company has a market cap of $657 million.