Reverse mergers and acquisitions remain a viable path to the public market for venture-backed biotechs, with Caldera Therapeutics and Vidya Therapeutics announcing separate deals on Wednesday to advance immunology and inflammation assets.
Private biotechs Caldera Therapeutics and Vidya Therapeutics are taking separate paths to the public markets through Nasdaq-listed companies, with the deals collectively drawing $478 million in fresh financing.
First up is Caldera Therapeutics, a bispecific antibody–focused U.S. biotech that has agreed to a reverse merger with Nasdaq-listed Synlogic, according to a Wednesday release. Caldera, which emerged earlier this year with $112.5 million in hand, will use Synlogic’s shell to enter the public markets. After Synlogic’s rare metabolic disorder candidate failed a Phase 3 trial in 2024, the biotech eliminated most of its workforce and was scouting strategic alternatives.
Now, young Caldera is going public with the support of several institutional investors—such as Bain Capital Life Sciences, TCGX, Atlas Venture, venBio Partners and Blackstone Multi-Asset Investing, among others—securing a $278 million private placement alongside the merger.
The investors will own 34.9% of the new entity, while Caldera’s existing backers will have 62.8% ownership and Synlogic shareholders will hold a 2.3% stake.
The proposed private placement and public offering will fuel Caldera’s main program, an investigational bispecific antibody called CLD-423. The asset was picked up from China biotech Qyuns Therapeutics as a potential treatment for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and other immune-mediated diseases. The drug is currently being evaluated in a Phase 1 study and is supposed to offer a more convenient maintenance dosing regimen for patients with IBD.
Assuming that Synlogic will have $6 million in cash at closing, the biotech is valued at $18 million, while Caldera is valued at $500 million, according to SEC documents.
Then there’s Vidya Therapeutics, a small-molecule company formed in 2023. The biotech is being acquired by Processa Pharmaceuticals, a Nasdaq-listed Florida company. The newly combined organization will continue development of Vidya’s lead asset, VT-7208. The once-daily, oral Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor (BTKi) holds best-in-class potential in food allergy, chronic spontaneous urticaria and relapsing multiple sclerosis, according to a Wednesday release.
In tandem, Processa has raised $200 million in private placement financing from a syndicate that includes Bain, RA Capital Management, Cormorant Asset Management and others.
Once the deal closes, Processa is expected to own 0.9% of the new company’s common stock, while equity holders of Vidya will own 46% and private placement investors will hold a 52.6% stake. After the private placement goes through, Processa’s projected cash runway will extend into the second half of 2029.
Together, the deals indicate that biotechs are bullish on the public market—regardless of how they get there. With sizable crossover financings and existing public listings, private startups are finding alternatives to access public funds while avoiding the uncertainties that can be tied to a traditional IPO.
