Modifi Biosciences, Inc., a developer of direct DNA modification enabled cancer therapeutics, has been acquired by Merck for $30 million upfront. Modifi Biosciences shareholders are also eligible to receive potential milestone payments totaling up to $1.3 billion.
 
Modifi Biosciences 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 (MGMT). Modifi Biosciences’ research and subsequent preclinical data has shown promise across a number of tumor models including patient-derived xenograft models of gliomas and other cancers with intrinsic DNA repair defects.
 
“DNA repair defects are a frequent hallmark of tumor cells and a major cause of resistance to cancer therapy,” said Dr. David Weinstock, vice president, discovery oncology, Merck Research Laboratories. “The talented Modifi Biosciences team has developed an innovative approach that we believe has potential for treating some of the most refractory cancer types.”
 
“We designed our small molecules to have the ability to uniquely overcome clinical resistance mechanisms that have been known for decades but until now have been non-actionable. Additionally, we created the molecules in a manner which allows them to be rapidly progressed from bench-to-bedside,” said Seth Herzon, PhD, Modifi Biosciences co-founder and the Milton Harris ’29 PhD Professor of Chemistry in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Pharmacology and Therapeutic Radiology at the Yale School of Medicine.