Ramaswamy-backed biotech goes public via reverse merger

A drug approved in Italy for over a decade might finally reach American patients. Ambros Therapeutics, co-founded by Vivek Ramaswamy, agreed Friday to merge with Werewolf Therapeutics, a struggling Nasdaq-listed cancer biotech. The deal raises $150 million to fund a Phase 3 trial for neridronate, a non-opioid painkiller. It targets CRPS-1, a rare, severe pain condition that can follow a limb injury with no approved US treatment.

Ramaswamy co-founded Ambros but doesn't run it day-to-day. This deal follows a common industry pattern. A private biotech with a promising drug merges into a struggling public company. That skips the slow, expensive IPO process entirely. Werewolf had spent most of this year searching for a buyer after its own cancer pipeline stalled. For Ambros, going public this way means faster access to trial funding. For Werewolf shareholders, it means the company's Nasdaq listing lives on, just under a different name and a different disease.

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Will neridronate actually make it through Phase 3? The drug already has years of real-world use in Italy. That's a stronger starting position than most experimental drugs get. It also has FDA Breakthrough Therapy status, meant to speed up review for treatments that fill a real gap. But CRPS-1 is notoriously hard to study. Patients' pain levels are subjective and vary a lot. That makes clean trial results harder to produce than for diseases with a clear-cut medical test. If this works, patients with a condition that currently has no good options finally get one.