Vickers Venture’s SPAC closes business combination with Scilex; starts trading on Nov 11

VICKERS Vantage Corp I has closed its business combination with Scilex, a subsidiary of biotech company Sorrento Therapeutics which is listed on Nasdaq.

This comes comes some 10 months after the initial business combination announcement in March, and no announcements were made over any further capital raised through a private investment in public equity deals.

About 80 per cent of shareholders of Vickers Venture’s special purpose acquisition company’s (SPAC) voted in favour of the combination on Wednesday (Nov 9).

Scilex is a pharmaceutical company that acquires, develops and commercialises non-opioid pain management products for acute and chronic pain.

“At Vickers, we hope to be able to work together with like-minded companies that aim to make the world a better place. This is even more significant in the current landscape, but we didn’t compromise the quality of a target company in a rush to merge, and kept to our philosophy of investing in deep tech companies that can create a better world,” said Jeffrey Chi, chief executive officer and chairman of the SPAC.

Sorrento Therapeutics owns 96 per cent of Scilex prior to the combination, and will own 88 per cent of the combined entity on a non-diluted basis. The SPAC will redomesticate from the Cayman Islands to Delaware, US.

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The combined company will operate as Scilex Holding Company on Nov 11, with shares and warrants to start trading on Nasdaq under SCLX and SXLXW respectively.

“As a public company, we aim to accelerate our mission to increase access to prescription non-opioid therapeutics by further commercialising our two Food and Drug Administration-authorised non-opioid pain management products, expanding public and private payer adoption, and advancing our pipeline of innovative opioid sparing products. We are grateful to all of our investors for supporting us through our successful transition,” said Jaisim Shah, president and chief executive officer, Scilex.