Obsidian Therapeutics, a private biotechnology company, will begin trading on the Nasdaq following a reverse merger with Galera Therapeutics announced Tuesday.
The combined company will focus on developing Obsidian’s main asset, a cell therapy codenamed OBX-115. The medicine is created using white blood cells known as tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, or TILs, that are harvested from the patient, engineered to better fight cancer and then reinfused. In 2024, Iovance Biotherapeutics’ Amtagvi became the first TIL cell therapy approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
OBX-115 is currently in human testing, where researchers are evaluating it in a mid-stage trial for advanced melanoma and an early-stage study for non-small cell lung cancer. The therapy, according to Obsidian, is designed to be durable as well as easier on the patient in several ways. For example, it doesn’t require patients to take “interleukin-2” drugs, which are highly toxic but often useful for supporting the transferred immune cells. The cell procurement process can also be done in the outpatient setting, with a minimally invasive biopsy.
To support the merger, Obsidian and Galera have secured commitments for a private placement financing that’s expected to deliver $350 million in gross proceeds. Participating in the placement is a syndicate of at least nine new investors — including Balyasny Asset Management, Caligan Partners LP and Eventide Asset Management — along with existing backers like Atlas Venture, Novo Holdings, RA Capital Management and Wellington Management.
The financing deal is set to close just before the merger completes, which should happen by July 1 if all goes according to plan. Obsidian and Galera expect that, once these deals are done, the new company’s balance of cash and cash equivalents will keep it operational into the second half of 2028, funding it through clinical milestones like the data readouts for OBX-115 in lung cancer and melanoma.
Results from those trials are slated to come in the first half of 2027 and by year-end 2027, respectively.
The merger agreement holds that Galera shareholders (other than those involved in the private placement) will own around 1.8% of the combined company, while Obsidian shareholders will own approximately 53.2%. Investors in the private placement will control the remaining 45%.
That same group of Galera investors will also receive one so-called contingent value right for each outstanding share of the company’s common stock they have.
“We believe this transaction with Obsidian is the best path forward for Galera,” CEO J. Mel Sorensen said in a statement. Sorensen added that OBX-115 offers “near-term, value creating milestones” for his company’s stockholders.
Galera had been developing small molecules that were meant to mirror a type of enzyme that can protect healthy tissues from damage caused by radiation therapy. But it sold those assets late last year to a Canadian biopharma firm, Biossil, in exchange for $3.5 million up front and a clean exit from a royalty purchase agreement with Blackstone Life Sciences.
Galera recorded almost $150 million in net income in 2025, compared to a net loss of $19 million the year prior.
The Pennsylvania-based biotech’s research has since revolved around a drug it acquired in 2024. A small, investigator-sponsored trial is currently assessing the drug against a rare, aggressive form of breast cancer. The companies said in their statement that the combined entity, which will operate under the Obsidian name, will also continue to support Galera’s pipeline.
The new company will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker “OBX.” It will be led by Obsidian’s sitting CEO, Madan Jagasia, and adopt Obsidian’s board of directors — with Maria Fardis, the chief executive at AirNexis Therapeutics, serving as chair.
