The medtech Spac scene seems to be going through one of its periodic lulls, with just one deal announced in August and one in September. The latter is the acquisition of Prenetics, a genomics and diagnostics testing company based in Hong Kong, by the Nasdaq-listed Artisan Acquisition Corp. The deal values Prenetics at around $1.3bn, not unreasonable considering its forecast 2021 revenues of $205m. Once public the group, whose claim to fame is supplying the Covid-19 tests used by the UK’s Premier League, has ambitions to expand into the US via M&A. Looking at the other end of the Spac process, seven companies have closed their deals and now enjoy stock market listings. But their performance has been decidedly mixed. Vicarious Surgical’s 50% rise reflects the high hopes for new entrants into the fast growing robotic surgical space, whereas the baby-monitoring tech company Owlet crashed 26% on August 25 when several of its backers, including its Spac’s sponsor, Sandbridge Capital, registered to sell their shares.
| Health tech Spac deals announced in Q3 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Target | Spac (main backer) | Focus | Date announced |
| Prenetics | Artisan Acquisition (Artisan) | Diagnostics and genomics | Sep 15 |
| Memic Innovative Surgery | Medtech Acquisition Corp (Medtech Acquisition Sponsor) | Robotic surgery | Aug 13 |
| Gelesis | Capstar Special Purpose Acquisition Corp (Capstar Partners and Pimco) | Gastrointestinal | Jul 19 |
| Heartflow | Longview Acquisition Corp II (Glenview Capital Management) | Cardiovascular | Jul 15 |
| Hyperfine and Liminal Sciences | Healthcor Catalio Acquisition Corp (Healthcor Management and Catalio Capital Management) | Imaging/patient monitoring | Jul 8 |
| Source: company releases. | |||
| Health tech Spac deals closed in Q3 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Target | Spac (main backer) | Focus | Closing date | Share price change* |
| LumiraDx | CA Healthcare Acquisition Corp (Covington Associates and Pleasant Bay Capital Partners) | Diagnostics | Sep 28 | (9%) |
| Vicarious Surgical | D8 Holdings Corp (D8 Sponsor) |
Robotic surgery | Sep 20 | 50% |
| Somalogic | CM Life Sciences II (Casdin Capital and Corvex Management) | Proteomics | Sep 1 | 24% |
| Humacyte | Alpha Healthcare Acquisition Corp (AHAC Sponsor) | Bioengineered vascular grafts | Aug 26 | 16% |
| Sema4 | CM Life Sciences (Casdin Capital and Corvex Management) | Genomics | Jul 23 | (24%) |
| Owlet | Sandbridge Acquisition Corp (Sandbridge Capital and Pimco) | Digital health | Jul 16 | (44%) |
| Sharecare | Falcon Capital Acquisition Corp (Falcon Equity Investors) | Telehealth | Jul 2 | (18%) |
| *Share price change calculated from $10, the price at which Spacs IPO, to July 30. Source: company releases. | ||||
Source: https://www.evaluate.com/vantage/articles/news/snippets/health-tech-spacmania-flags
