Isleworth Healthcare Acquisition Corp. a special purpose acquisition company and Cytovia Holdings, Inc.(“Cytovia”), a biopharmaceutical company empowering natural killer (NK) cells to fight cancer through stem cell engineering and multispecific antibodies today announced they have entered into a definitive business combination agreement. Upon consummation of this combination, Isleworth will be renamed Cytovia Therapeutics, Inc. (the “combined company”) and its common stock and warrants are expected to remain listed on NASDAQ under the ticker symbols INKC and INKCW, respectively.
The combined company will continue Cytovia’s operations and remain focused on developing and manufacturing complementary NK cell and NK engager antibody platforms.
The combined company will be led by Dr. Daniel Teper, the Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Cytovia.
“We are grateful for the strong support from new and existing investors and the team of seasoned entrepreneurs at Isleworth. We expect this transaction to accelerate the execution of Cytovia’s vision to advance NK therapeutics towards a cure for cancer” said Dr. Teper. “We are encouraged by our preclinical data recently presented at AACR, which supports advancing development of our iPSC-derived NK cells (iNK) and Flex-NK cell engagers for the treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma.”
Bob Whitehead, Isleworth’s CEO, said: “Isleworth evaluated multiple life science companies and was most impressed by the talent and technology assembled by Cytovia. We believe Cytovia is one of the most advanced, innovative cell therapy companies involved with the development of new cancer treatments. Cell therapies in oncology have already brought hope to millions. Cytovia’s approaches could conceivably make similar approaches more conveniently ‘off-the-shelf’ and affordable.”