Fulcrum Therapeutics and Slate Medicines agreed to combine via a $245 million reverse merger, creating a faster route to public markets for Fulcrum’s and Slate’s migraine programs. The merged entity will be led by Slate’s Gregory Oakes, with Slate’s lead asset SLTE-1009—a subcutaneous monoclonal antibody blocking both PACAP and VIP—expected to move through Phase I healthy volunteer work and Phase II dose-ranging testing. The transaction comes with a concurrent oversubscribed $245 million private placement, and the proceeds are expected to fund operations into 2029. Fulcrum will close out a strategic review after discontinuing sickle cell drug pociredir following FDA safety concerns. The structure—pre-merger Fulcrum shareholders retaining about 5% of the combined entity and Slate holders about 95%—is designed to balance capital return with a continued public listing pathway, reflecting a broader industry tactic to reduce IPO timing risk for clinical-stage biotechs.