Vesicor Therapeutics Enters into Business Agreement with Black Hawk to Advance Oncology Treatments
Black Hawk’s subsidiary, BH Merger Sub, will merge with Vesicor as part of the agreement.
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Vesicor Therapeutics, a California-based early development stage biotechnology corporation, announced on April 28, 2025 that it has signed a business combination agreement (BCA) with Black Hawk Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company. Under the BCA, Black Hawk’s subsidiary, BH Merger Sub, will merge with Vesicor. The transaction, which is valued at $70 million, has been approved by both companies’ board of directors and isexpected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2025.
“At the effective time of the transaction, Vesicor’s shareholders and management will receive the right to receive a number of shares of Black Hawk’s common stock equal to the consideration ratio as further specified in the BCA. The shares held by certain Vesicor’s shareholders will be subject to lock-up agreements for a period of six months following the closing of the transaction, subject to certain exceptions,” the press release stated (1).
Vesicor is an early development stage biotechnology company focused on the development of p53-based cancer therapeutics delivered via precision-engineered microvesicles. The company’s genetically engineered cellular microvesicle (ecm) non-viral nanoparticle RNA vesicle (RV), ecm-RV/p53, is loaded with in-vitro transcribed p53 mRNA. While not approved for use in the United States or Japan, ecm-RV/p53 has been used in Tokyo since 2018 under Japan’s Medical Practitioner’s Act, which allows unapproved drugs to be used under the discretion of a physician. The company states that patients with advanced breast, pancreatic, prostate, lung, and colorectal cancers have used ecm-RV/p53, and it has the potential to be used to treat a range of solid tumors. Preclinical testing is expected to begin in the US and an investigational new drug application (IND) is planned to be submitted to FDA in 2026.
“Our aim is to identify a company with solid potential to disrupt an entire industry, a talented and credentialed executive team with a proven track record, and good prospects for future growth,” Kent Kaufman, chief executive officer of Black Hawk, said in a press release (1). “We believe that we have found these qualities in Vesicor. We look forward to completing this transaction and working with Vesicor’s management team to help them thrive as a public company while they continue to grow.”
“Our mission is to transform the lives of cancer patients and their families. We are focused on completing preclinical testing in the United States, submitting our IND to FDA and beginning Phase I clinical trials,” stated Luo Feng, PhD, founder and chief executive officer of Vesicor Therapeutics, in the release.
“We are excited to partner with Kent and the rest of the Black Hawk team to bring Vesicor to the public markets. We believe that this transaction, if completed, will help facilitate access to the capital markets and will accelerate the validation and deployment of our ecm-RV/p53 drug candidate,” stated Oded Levy, board director of Vesicor Therapeutics, in the release.
In BioPharm International®’s April Next-Generation Biotherapeutics eBook, emerging modalities for cancer treatments are discussed (2), including advancements in cell and gene therapies and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes.
“Immunotherapies allow you to retarget the immune system itself and harness the power of the immune system to directly fight the cancer within the body,” Sarah Hein, co-founder and CEO of March Biosciences said. “And for the first time, you are seeing curative, potentially, responses [in] a large number of patients who are achieving long-term, durable remissions. Some of these are usually just uninhibiting the immune system, but where we’ve really been leaning into is the cell therapies, where you can engineer and turbocharge those cells directly to target a cancer.”
Click here to read the eBook to discover more on emerging biotherapeutics.
References
- Vesicor. Vesicor Therapeutics and Black Hawk Acquisition Corporation Announce Business Combination Agreement, Advancing Oncology-focused Pipeline. Press Release. April 28, 2025.
- Haigney, S. Emerging Treatments for Cancer. BioPharm International® Next-Generation Biotherapeutics eBook, April 2025.
