Freenome is taking itself public via a special purpose acquisition company, also known as a SPAC deal, to help raise funds in preparation for the planned 2026 launch of its blood-based screening tests for multiple cancers.
Backed by an affiliate of Perceptive Advisors and joined by RA Capital, the move includes a commitment of $240 million in equity investments plus about $90 million more held by the SPAC’s trust fund. ADAR1 Capital, Bain Capital Life Sciences, Farallon Capital Management and other unnamed investors have also signed on to participate in the deal.
The company’s plans to make the jump to the Nasdaq—under the ticker “FRNM”—come shortly after it announced an international licensing pact with Roche that could be worth $200 million or more. Late last month, Roche agreed to make a $75 million equity investment in Freenome and pledged to support its R&D work in exchange for the rights to its multiomic cancer screening approaches outside the U.S.
Stateside, Freenome inked a deal with Exact Sciences back in August for its screening blood test aimed at colorectal cancer. The terms of their pact included $75 million in upfront cash, plus up to $700 million in milestones, along with an equity investment of $50 million and another $20 million slated for joint R&D programs.
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“Freenome is entering the public markets at an inflection point for our company and for blood-based cancer screening,” Freenome CEO Aaron Elliott, Ph.D., said in a statement.
“Our technology has been clinically validated through our pivotal PREEMPT CRC study and recent JAMA manuscript. We have secured the commercialization partnerships needed to support the expected launch of multiple tests in 2026,” Elliott added.
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The proceeds from the SPAC deal are set to fund the development of Freenome’s artificial-intelligence-powered multiomics platform for spotting early disease signals in the bloodstream, in addition to building out the company’s commercial infrastructure and an automated laboratory workflow.
Freenome said it also plans to offer people a menu of personalized tests for the detection of different cancers based on their individual risk profiles and screening eligibility based on medical guidelines.
