A biotechnology company that went public earlier this year is adding a former U.S. commerce secretary to its board of directors following a private placement agreement.
Houston-based Coya Therapeutics (Nasdaq: COYA) said Wilbur Ross, who held the secretary post from 2017 to 2021, participated in the placement, which consisted of a sale of 4.3 million shares of common stock at $6.06 per share. Coya said the gross proceeds of the agreement were $26.5 million prior to deducting agents’ fees and other expenses.
BTIG LLC is acting as the lead placement agent, and Newbridge Securities Corp. is acting as co-placement agent for the offering. Allele Capital Partners LLC, through its executing broker-dealer, Wilmington Capital Securities LLC, and Chardan Capital Markets LLC are acting as financial advisers to Coya.
Ross, whose resume also includes a long career in bankruptcy restructuring, is expected to join Coya's board after the placement closes on or around Dec. 11.
Prior to his appointment as secretary, Ross led New York-based WL Ross Holding Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, also called a blank-check company. The SPAC acquired Nexeo Solutions in 2016 in a $1.58 billion deal, which took The Woodlands-based chemical and plastics distributor public. Nexeo later was acquired by Downers Grove, Illinois-based Univar in a 2019 deal valued at approximately $2 billion.
Ross, who became chairman of Nexeo in the 2016 deal, stepped away from his board duties when he was appointed to President Donald Trump’s cabinet in 2017. He was succeeded as Nexeo chairman by Dan Smith, a former Lyondell Chemical Co. chairman, president and CEO.
More recently, Ross formed another SPAC, called Ross Acquisition Corp. II, in 2021. That blank-check company was set to merge with Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company Aprinoia Therapeutics Inc. However, Aprinoia said in August that the two companies had come to a mutual agreement to call off the deal.
In a Dec. 6 Securities and Exchange Commission filing confirming Ross’ investment and board appointment, Coya also said it had entered into a development and license agreement with multinational pharmaceutical company Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. for its COYA 302 drug, which targets amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Under the agreement, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories will pay $7.5 million up front with additional payments contingent upon COYA 302’s acceptance as an investigational new drug by the Food and Drug Administration and the progress of its clinical trials.
Coya Therapeutics went public in January with a $15.25 million initial public offering. At the time, the company said it planned to use the proceeds to advance its therapies from preclinical to human trials, for discovery and for general corporate purposes.
Earlier this year, Coya also named two new leaders to its C-suite, with Dr. Arun Swaminathan joining in March as the company’s new chief business officer and Dr. Fred Grossman taking over as president and chief medical officer in July.
Coya, which Dr. Howard Berman incorporated in 2020, uses technology licensed from Houston Methodist to create regulatory T-cell therapy, treating patients with neurodegenerative diseases like ALS, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and frontotemporal dementia. Two of its product lines concentrating on ALS and Alzheimer’s have completed patient studies in 2023, according to an investor presentation.
