Organogenesis Inc., a Canton biotech that sells wound care and skin graft products, is going public again, 16 years after it went private amid financial problems.
The biotech, founded in 1985 as a spinoff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, announced it is merging with a special entity created by Avista Capital, a New York private equity firm.
Avista plans to invest $92 million in Organogenesis, which will trade on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol ORGO. The merger with Avista Healthcare Public Acquisition Corp. essentially takes Organogenesis public without having to go through the costly paperwork and legal expenses of a traditional IPO.
The combined company is expected to have an initial value of some $673 million.
“This transaction will provide Organogenesis with capital that we will use to accelerate our growth plan for both our existing product portfolio and R&D pipeline,” Gary Gillheeney Sr., president and chief executive of Organogenesis, said Friday.
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The boards of directors of Avista and Organogenesis unanimously approved the transaction. The deal is expected to close by year’s end.
Organogenesis has more than 600 employees worldwide and sells skin substitutes such as Apligraf and Dermagraft, which are used for wound care and tissue regeneration. The company went public in 1986 but reverted to private ownership in a 2002 restructuring that followed nearly a year of bankruptcy protection.
In 2014, Organogenesis laid off 150 workers after the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services decided to reimburse it at a lower rate by bundling its products with other medical services. Last year, it bought NuTech Medical Inc., a Birmingham, Ala., supplier of tissue products used in many spinal and orthopedic surgeries.
Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com.