Biotechnology research firm GreenLight starts trading on New York’s Nasdaq

Biotechnology company GreenLight Biosciences started trading on New York’s Nasdaq on Thursday.

Founded in 2008, the Medford-headquartered company uses ribonucleic acid (RNA) to tackle some of the biological world's biggest challenges, including pandemics, rare diseases, biodiversity and climate change.

The company said it aims to make RNA products more accessible for human health and agriculture research purposes.

“We are thrilled to accelerate commercialisation by attracting the talent, investing in the tools and scaling our manufacturing infrastructure to continue developing our platform for design, development and production of unprecedented new applications for RNA,” GreenLight’s chief executive Andrey Zarur said.

RNA is a polymeric molecule that plays a vital role in various biological processes in coding, decoding, regulation and expression of genes.

GreenLight’s Nasdaq listing followed an agreement with Boston-headquartered special purpose acquisition company Environmental Impact Acquisition (Envi).

The entities announced the closing of their previously announced business combination on Wednesday.

In connection with the closing, the research company has changed its name to GreenLight Biosciences Holdings. It is now a public-benefit corporation, with shares of Class A common stock and public warrants trading on Nasdaq under the ticker symbols “GRNA” and “GRNA.WS”, respectively.

“In creating Envi, our goal was to partner and combine with a high-growth, technology-rich business, propelled by a large market opportunity and a business model supporting critical sustainability initiatives,” chief executive of Environmental Impact Acquisition Dan Coyne said.

“GreenLight has an impressive pipeline of RNA products spanning human, animal and plant health … and its exceptional team understands what it takes to deliver breakthrough technology to market. We are extremely pleased to have completed this transaction, resulting in GreenLight becoming a public company,” Mr Coyne said.

GreenLight is harnessing the power of biology to develop RNA-based solutions to solve various challenges in human health through messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines and therapeutics.

The company’s breakthrough cell-free RNA manufacturing platform, which is protected by numerous patents, allows for cost-effective and scalable production of RNA.

mRNA vaccines teach human cells how to make a protein that will activate an immune response inside bodies. They benefit people who are vaccinated by shielding them against diseases like Covid-19 while also mitigating the possibilities of becoming seriously ill. In agriculture, GreenLight makes RNA solutions to protect honeybees and a range of crops.

Its human health product candidates are in the preclinical stage and its product candidates for the agriculture market are in the early stages of development or regulatory review.

Credit Suisse and SVB Leerink served as financial and capital markets advisers to GreenLight and co-placement agents on the transaction. Canaccord Genuity served as financial adviser and Latham and Watkins served as legal adviser to Environmental Impact Acquisition.

To mark the completion of the business combination, GreenLight will ring the closing bell at Nasdaq on February 8.