BioPharma Dive评论文章称Caribou Biosciences或成反向并购热门壳标的

In the hunt for reverse merger targets, Caribou could be prized game | BioPharma Dive
Skip to main content
CONTINUE TO SITE ➞
Don't miss tomorrow's biopharma industry news
Let BioPharma Dive's free newsletter keep you informed, straight from your inbox.
Daily Dive
M-F
Commercialization Weekly
Every Wednesday
Gene Therapy Weekly
Every Thursday
Emerging Biotech Weekly
Every Tuesday
By signing up to receive our newsletter, you agree to our
Terms of Use
and
Privacy Policy
. You can unsubscribe at anytime.
Informa TechTarget
|
Healthcare Dive
MedTech Dive
PharmaVoice
Xtelligent Pharma Life Sciences
Explore our brands
An Informa TechTarget Publication
Search
People also ask
Loading questions...
An article from
Emerging biotech
In the hunt for reverse merger targets, Caribou could be prized game
The struggling cell therapy developer is exploring strategic alternatives, which, among other characteristics, make it a likely candidate to receive reverse merger interest.
Published Oct. 8, 2026
Jacob Bell
Lead Reporter
Share
Copy link
Email
LinkedIn
X/Twitter
Facebook
Print
License
Add us on Google
Getty Images
On Wall Street, a major search is underway to find struggling public companies that can serve as the raw materials for a niche but booming business. A promising candidate may have just emerged.
This business revolves around “reverse mergers,” a type of deal where a private company combines with a public counterpart, often as a quick way to access the broad and deep-pocketed array of investors found on marketplaces like the Nasdaq. While previously disparaged, reverse mergers have recently
become so popular
that some deal experts question whether there are enough quality “shell” companies to meet the demand.
Shell hunters could have another option following a Tuesday announcement from Caribou Biosciences, the once high-flying biotechnology startup co-founded by CRISPR gene editing pioneer Jennifer Doudna. In a statement, Caribou CEO Rachel Haurwitz said the current financing environment has
made it “increasingly challenging”
to secure the money needed to advance the company’s two main research programs, which focus on a hard-to-make form of medicine known as
“off-the-shelf” cell therapy
.
As such, Caribou has made the “difficult decision” not to further develop its programs and to “evaluate strategic alternatives” — common corporate lingo for opening itself up to various deals. Caribou’s board of directors has already cleared management to start evaluating a potential merger, acquisition, business combination or other transactions. The company has also tapped Wedbush Securities to serve as its exclusive financial advisor in this process.
To Daina Graybosch, an analyst at Leerink Partners who covers Caribou, the natural end for the company now is either a reverse merger or an acquisition by Tang Capital, a San Diego-based investment firm that made a name for itself by buying up cash-rich biotechs and returning much of their value to shareholders. Caribou ended the second quarter with $114 million worth of cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities.
“I think Rachel and the team really do believe in their assets, but it's a real struggle,” Graybosch said. “And when you finally do raise [capital], it just gets more and more dilutive. To pull the trigger now and give money back is what everybody likes to see” and “creates so much positive trust” with investors.
Caribou checks some of the boxes that, according to deal experts, make for a good reverse merger candidate. It trades on the Nasdaq, for example, which is more attractive to private drug developers than lower-tier, over-the-counter markets.
A researcher works in Caribou's labs, where the company was designing cell therapies for blood malignancies.
Permission granted by Caribou Biosciences
Caribou may also have a subzero enterprise value, which, in broad strokes, means that after accounting for its cash pile, the market is attributing nothing — or, really, less than nothing — to the company’s core operating business. That can actually be a plus to private developers, as it signals they might not have to pay a big premium to snag the public vehicle.
Using its June 30 financials and closing share price Wednesday, Caribou would have a negative enterprise value of roughly $20 million. (Notably, that’s at the low end of a range from Leerink, which estimates the figure could be as much as $30 million depending on how much cash Caribou spent in the third quarter.)
“I would definitely say a reverse merger is on the table here,” said Emmett Sweeney, a vice president on the healthcare investment banking team at Raymond James.
Perhaps what makes Caribou such an obvious reverse merger prospect is its publicly stating that it’s exploring strategic alternatives. When companies do that, they become “low-hanging fruit” for reverse merger deals, according to David Kellman, a managing director and head of life sciences and biopharma investment banking at Citizens.
They’re “basically running auction processes” with private companies, Kellman said in an interview earlier this month. “Those are the most obvious candidates, regardless of other criteria.”
Caribou’s statement, including the mention of Wedbush being its strategic advisor, is a sign that company leaders are “serious” and “mean business,” Sweeney said. Clearly, “they want to move quickly. That's another aspect of Caribou that makes it an attractive merger partner.”
Sweeney and others anticipate that Caribou, if not already, will soon be inundated with inbounds from private companies interested in merging. With roughly two dozen biotech reverse mergers announced this year, “the question for many companies is no longer whether the structure works, but whether they can find the right shell and execute the transaction on attractive terms,” Raymond James analysts wrote in a note to clients Wednesday.
One lingering question is whether Caribou’s now-discontinued drugs will find a new home.
Graybosch doesn’t have high hopes — in part because of rival programs advancing at other cell therapy developers like
Fate Therapeutics
and
AvenCell Therapeutics
, both of which are backed by major life sciences investors and large pharmaceutical firms.
“Very rarely do these assets show up [again],” she said. “If I'm an investor thinking, ‘Do I wrap a new company around this asset, or do I go invest in AvenCell or Fate,’ I probably choose AvenCell or Fate at this point.”
Recommended Reading
A booming business on Wall Street would love more biotechs to quietly die
By
Jacob Bell
•
Sept. 10, 2026
Add us on Google
Share
Copy link
Email
LinkedIn
X/Twitter
Facebook
Print
License
Filed Under:
Deals
BioPharma Dive news delivered to your inbox
Get the free daily newsletter read by industry experts
Email:
Select Newsletter:
Daily Dive
M-F
Select Newsletter:
Commercialization Weekly
Every Wednesday
Select Newsletter:
Gene Therapy Weekly
Every Thursday
Select Newsletter:
Emerging Biotech Weekly
Every Tuesday
Select user consent:
By signing up to receive our newsletter, you agree to our
Terms of Use
and
Privacy Policy
. You can unsubscribe at anytime.
Sign up
A valid email address is required.
Please select at least one newsletter.
Editors' picks
Permission granted by Nasdaq, Inc. / Vanja Savic
Deep Dive
//
Emerging biotech
Biotech investors gamble on M&A. Some drugmakers are betting on themselves instead.
Young biotechs usually get acquired instead of profitably selling their own medicines. A growing number are proving they can, which could make the sector more broadly appealing to investors, some say.
By Gwendolyn Wu •
April 28, 2026
Kevin Frayer via Getty Images
China competition
Drugs from China are reshaping biotech. Track the licensing deals here.
Hengrui’s $2.6 billion deal with Novo is its sixth with a major U.S. or European drugmaker since the start of 2025, the most of any China-based biopharmaceutical company over that timeframe.
By Ben Fidler •
Updated Sept. 29, 2026
Keep up with the story. Subscribe to the BioPharma Dive free daily newsletter
Email:
Select Newsletter:
Daily Dive
M-F
Select Newsletter:
Commercialization Weekly
Every Wednesday
Select Newsletter:
Gene Therapy Weekly
Every Thursday
Select Newsletter:
Emerging Biotech Weekly
Every Tuesday
Select user consent:
By signing up to receive our newsletter, you agree to our
Terms of Use
and
Privacy Policy
. You can unsubscribe at anytime.
Sign up
A valid email address is required.
Please select at least one newsletter.
BioPharma Dive news delivered to your inbox
Get the free daily newsletter read by industry experts
Email:
Select Newsletter:
Daily Dive
M-F
Select Newsletter:
Commercialization Weekly
Every Wednesday
Select Newsletter:
Gene Therapy Weekly
Every Thursday
Select Newsletter:
Emerging Biotech Weekly
Every Tuesday
Select user consent:
By signing up to receive our newsletter, you agree to our
Terms of Use
and
Privacy Policy
. You can unsubscribe at anytime.
Sign up
A valid email address is required.
Please select at least one newsletter.
Company Announcements
View all
|
Post a press release
IQVIA Launches IQVIA Life Science Models to Help Life Sciences Companies Predict Clinical Tria…
From IQVIA
October 07, 2026
Archō’s ELAVAY Cardiometabolic Report Names Eli Lilly the Company Diabetes Advocates Trust Most
From Archō Advocacy, LLC
October 07, 2026
Woven Health Collective Wins Inaugural 2026 MM+M Award for Generative AI and Synthetic Media
From Woven Health Collective
October 02, 2026
Sapient Launches GCLP-Compliant Workflows to Expand Support for Clinical Biomarker Testing
From Sapient
September 22, 2026
Editors' picks
Yujin Kim / MedTech Dive,
original photo
courtesy of U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Tracker
5 FDA decisions to watch in the fourth quarter of 2025
Against the backdrop of a government shutdown, the agency has a series of critical decisions ahead, among them verdicts on new therapies from Novo Nordisk and Biohaven.
By BioPharma Dive staff •
Updated Sept. 30, 2025
George Frey/Reuters
Deep Dive
A decade of cancer immunotherapy: Keytruda, Opdivo and the drugs that changed oncology
Over the past 10 years, PD1-blocking medicines have transformed cancer care. But the steady expansion of their use has slowed and, despite much trying, pharmaceutical companies have largely failed to top the drugs’ successes.
By Jonathan Gardner •
Sept. 4, 2024
Latest in Deals
GE HealthCare to acquire Sofie Biosciences for $945M
By Susan Kelly
Shionogi pays $2B to acquire a rare disease startup
By Jonathan Gardner
Optogenetics researchers win a Nobel Prize; Roche bets on Alector brain drug
By Ben Fidler
Sanofi, Regeneron broaden alliance to find their next Dupixent
By Jacob Bell
This website is owned and operated by
Informa TechTarget
,
a global network that informs, influences and connects the world's technology buyers and sellers.
© 2025 TechTarget, Inc. or its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. An Informa PLC company.
Privacy policy
|
Terms of use
|
Take down policy
|
Cookie Preferences / Do Not Sell