Cancer therapy developer Revolution Medicines has agreed to acquire US-based genomic medicine developer Warp Drive Bio, which was co-founded by pharmaceutical firm Sanofi, in an all-share deal.
Warp Drive was formed in 2012 through a partnership between Sanofi and venture capital firms Third Rock Ventures and Greylock Partners.
The three committed at least $75m, and up to $125m in funding across a five-year period but have not disclosed how much they ended up investing. Warp Drive has not revealed details of any additional funding.
The merged company will make use of what Revolution and Warp Drive described as complementary drug discovery and precision oncology resources. The latter’s shareholders will receive shares in Revolution, which had raised a total of $126m as of its April 2018 series B round.
Mark Goldsmith, CEO of Revolution Medicines, said: “The merged R&D portfolio represents a rich pipeline of near and long-term development opportunities for our R&D team to advance in support of our continuing commitment to translate frontier oncology targets on behalf of cancer patients.
“We appreciate the groundbreaking research by Warp Drive Bio scientists that inspired this deal. The synergistic combination of capabilities and assets will deepen our ability to target cancer drivers precisely and comprehensively and will accelerate our trajectory as a leading oncology company.”
