Merck acquires Modifi Biosciences for $30M upfront

Modifi Biosciences announced that the company has been acquired by Merck (MRK). Under the terms of the agreement Merck, through a subsidiary, has acquired all outstanding shares of Modifi Biosciences for $30M upfront. Modifi Biosciences shareholders are also eligible to receive potential milestone payments totaling up to $1.3B. Modifi Biosciences, a Yale University spinout company formed in 2021, has developed a novel class of small molecules that target cancer cells lacking expression of a key DNA repair protein called O6-methylguanine methyl transferase. Modifi Biosciences’ research has been validated through its initial work published by the academic founders in Science in 2022, and subsequent compelling pre-clinical data across a number of tumor models including patient-derived xenograft models of gliomas and other cancers with intrinsic DNA repair defects.