Oral GLP-1 developer Corxel to go public via SPAC merger
Corxel Pharmaceuticals plans to list on Nasdaq through a merger with Amanat Acquisition Corp., backed by a $300 million private investment, to fund late-stage testing of its oral GLP-1 pill CX11.
Corxel Pharmaceuticals, a privately held obesity drug developer, said Oct. 26, 2026 that it plans to become a public company by merging with Amanat Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC [1][2]. The deal comes with a $300 million private investment in public equity from institutional investors, and the company expects to receive roughly $377 million in total [1][2]. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2027, and the combined company will likely list on the Nasdaq [1][2].
Corxel says the money will help it move its lead candidate, CX11, into late-stage testing [1]. CX11 is an oral GLP-1 pill that Corxel licensed from the Chinese drug developer Vincentage Pharma, giving it rights everywhere outside greater China [1]. The company is developing the drug for obesity, type 2 diabetes and related cardiometabolic conditions [2]. No brand name has been announced.
In June, Corxel reported that CX11 helped participants in a U.S. Phase 2 trial lose an average of up to 11.5% of their body weight after 36 weeks, with what the company described as a "favorable" gastrointestinal tolerability profile [1]. Vincentage also reported positive late-stage data in May from a Chinese Phase 3 trial run by that company, and an international Phase 3 study could follow as soon as the first quarter of 2027 [1]. Corxel is separately testing higher doses of CX11 in a Phase 1b trial to explore the drug's "efficacy upside," with more data expected in the first half of 2027 [1].
The combined company will also advance a preclinical weight loss prospect directed at amylin, a different gut hormone [1]. A third drug, JX10, licensed from Biogen and in development for acute ischemic stroke, is not part of the deal and will instead be housed in a still-private parent entity [1]. Corxel will name a new U.S.-based CEO in the coming months, according to the announcement [1].
The SPAC deal comes less than a year after Corxel raised a $287 million Series D round [1]. Chief financial officer Kevin Xie said in an interview that backers wanted the company to have a "more dedicated focus" rather than pursue "two different tracks," which led to the split. "Both companies have separate development strategies and financing processes, so that's more welcome news to the investors," Xie told BioPharma Dive [1]. Corxel, formerly known as JiXing Pharmaceuticals, launched in 2019 [1]. Leerink Partners is serving as lead placement agent for the private financing, with Evercore ISI, Guggenheim Securities, Cantor and LifeSci Capital acting as placement agents [2].
Why it matters for patients
CX11 is still experimental. It has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and no U.S. Phase 3 trial has started, so it will not be a new option for anyone taking a GLP-1 medication in the near term [1]. The company is pitching CX11 as a "differentiated, next-generation" therapy and an option for people who do not stay on injectable GLP-1s [1]. Xie said the drug may appeal to people who need to lose 5% to 10% of their body weight and are classified as overweight but not obese — a group that includes around 31% of U.S. adults, according to one National Institutes of Health estimate cited by BioPharma Dive [1].
The drug is well behind the first oral GLP-1s on the market, Eli Lilly's Foundayo (orforglipron) and Novo Nordisk's Wegovy pill, and Corxel is positioning it partly on tolerability rather than raw weight loss [1]. The 11.5% figure comes from a single mid-stage trial and has not been compared head-to-head with approved drugs; side effects beyond gastrointestinal ones were not described in the announcement [1]. Pricing, insurance coverage and how the pill would fit alongside existing treatments have not been disclosed.
What happens next
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