After failure in sickle cell, Fulcrum merges with Slate

Blood disorder specialist Fulcrum Therapeutics has agreed to what amounts to a reverse merger with Slate Medicines, a privately held biotech focused on next generation therapies for migraine. 

The merged company is expected to be led by Slate Medicines CEO Greg Oakes, will operate under the name Slate Medicines, and will trade under the ticker SLTE. It will focus on advancing Slate's pipeline in migraine, primarily its lead candidate SLTE-1009.

At the end of the merger, Fulcrum stockholders will own 5% of the company, Slate shareolders will own about 56%, and a syndicate of health investors will buy in for $245 million and own the remaining 39% of the company. Led by Frazier Life Sciences, other investors include Forbion, RA Capital Management, DeepTrack Capital, Foresight Capital, OrbiMed, RTW Investments, and Mingxin Capital. The funding is expected to provide a runway through 2029 for the company.

Founded in 2015 to focus on rare genetic disorders, Fulcrum went public in 2019 in a $72 million IPO. But in June the company announced that it would discontinue its pociredir programme in sickle cell disease after a similar drug, Ipsen's Tazverik (tazemetostat) had to be pulled from the market because of safety concerns. It became clear that the FDA was unlikely to approve pociredir, leaving Fulcrum a public company with $300 million in the bank and no asset.

"Since our June announcement regarding pociredir, Fulcrum's board and management team have been actively conducting a comprehensive review of strategic alternatives with the goal of maximising long-term shareholder value and believe that this proposed combination with Slate represents a high-potential value creation opportunity for Fulcrum stockholders," Fulcrum President and CEO Alex C. Sapir said on a conference call.

Slate Medicines, which came out of stealth in February with a $130 million Series A round, is tackling migraines via a monoclonal antibody targeting the pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide, or PACAP. The asset, SLTE-1009, is licensed from DartsBio Pharmaceuticals and is currently in Phase 1 trials.

"We're energised through our planned merger with Fulcrum to continue to build a world-class migraine-focused biotech company and advance our pipeline of potentially best-in-class next-generation therapeutics," Oakes said on the call. "We believe the combined company will be well positioned to deliver value for our combined stockholder base and most importantly for migraine patients."