Secretive biotechnology firm Treeline Biosciences is going public via reverse merger.
In a deal announced Monday, Treeline will combine with microfluidics company Standard BioTools. Shareholders in Standard will own an estimated 15.5% of the newly combined company, while the investors that backed Treeline will get the other 84.5%, according to an investor presentation.
The deal also hands Standard’s stockholders a contingent value right per share linked to proceeds of any sales involving the company’s pre-merger assets. Treeline will enter the public markets with nearly $900 million in cash and a trio of experimental programs in early trials.
Treeline is led by Josh Bilenker, the veteran biotechnology executive and former leader of Loxo Oncology, which Eli Lilly acquired for $8 billion in 2019. Bilenker briefly ran Lilly’s cancer drug division afterwards, and has since been building Treeline, a firm that’s secured more than $1 billion in private funding.
Treeline has been aiming to develop a mix of in-licensed medicines as well as internally discovered prospects. Its four publicly disclosed programs are drugs that either inhibit or “degrade” cancer targets.
