Date: 2016-01-11
Type of information: Collaboration agreement
Compound:
Company: Sanofi (France) Warp Drive Bio (USA - MA)
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology - Infectious diseases
Type agreement: collaboration R&D
Action mechanism:
Disease: SMART™ (Small Molecule Assisted Receptor Targeting) and Genome Mining platforms
Details: * On January 10, 2012 , Third Rock Ventures and Warp Drive Bio announced the launch of the new company and its broad strategic partnership with Sanofi, which positions the companies to transform the discovery and development of natural product drugs using Warp Drive Bio’s proprietary genomic technology and Sanofi’s natural products expertise. Warp Drive Bio was founded by Third Rock Ventures and world-leading scientist Gregory Verdine, Ph.D., and was incubated at Third Rock Ventures for two years. Warp Drive Bio is leading the reemergence of natural products in the era of genomics to create breakthrough therapies targeting critical biological pathways, particularly those that are currently considered “undruggable.” Built upon the belief that nature is the world’s most powerful medicinal chemist, Warp Drive Bio is deploying a battery of state-of-the-art technologies to access powerful drugs that are now hidden within microbes. Key to the Warp Drive Bio approach is the company’s proprietary “genomic search engine” that enables hidden natural products to be revealed on the basis of their distinctive genomic signature. Warp Drive Bio is developing additional breakthrough technologies to induce the production of these novel drug candidates and to determine their mode of action, ultimately enabling Warp Drive Bio to convert genomes into drugs.
Financial terms: The collaboration deal structure includes a possible future acquisition of Warp Drive by Sanofi if certain milestones are achieved and provides up to $125 million in initial funding, including up to $75 million in equity investment, to accelerate the development of Warp Drive Bio’s platform and establish proof of concept.
Latest news: * On January 11, 2016, Sanofi and Warp Drive Bio announced that they have extended and reshaped their existing collaboration utilizing Warp Drive’s proprietary SMART™ (Small Molecule Assisted Receptor Targeting) and Genome Mining platforms to discover novel oncology therapeutics and antibiotics. Sanofi, who has been a major investor and strategic partner since Warp Drive’s inception in 2012, and Warp Drive have entered into a research collaboration and exclusive license focused on the development of drugs targeting important human oncogenes including RAS, and new antibiotics targeting Gram-negative bacteria. Warp Drive Bio retains the rights to deploy its platforms to pursue discovery and development against all other targets, both alone and in collaboration with other companies. The collaboration is an outgrowth of Sanofi’s Sunrise initiative, a strategic partnership model that seeks to invest in early stage opportunities that align with Sanofi’s expert development and commercialization abilities. Under the terms of the Agreement, Warp Drive will lead the research collaboration for a period of five years and Sanofi will receive worldwide exclusive licenses to develop and commercialize the candidates discovered during the research term. Warp Drive is eligible to receive from Sanofi cumulative payments in excess of $750 million across four successful collaboration programs, including an equity investment by Sanofi, research, clinical, and regulatory milestones, and research and development services. The companies will initially focus on three defined oncology programs targeting different mutants and states of the RAS oncogenic protein. Warp Drive has the option to lead development of the therapeutic candidates from post IND filing up to phase 2 clinical studies, with Sanofi leading development through the filing of new drug applications. Sanofi will lead global commercial activities on product(s) resulting from the collaboration and Warp Drive has the option to co-commercialize oncology therapeutics in the U.S. market. Sanofi will manage all ex-US commercial activities and Warp Drive will receive commercial milestones and tiered royalties on product sales. The antibiotic collaboration will focus on the discovery and development of novel Gram-negative therapeutics and Sanofi will lead all development activities. Sanofi will be responsible for global commercialization of the antibiotic products and will pay Warp Drive research, clinical, and regulatory milestones, plus tiered royalties and commercial milestones based on global sales. A review of Warp Drive’s SMART platform and its application to RAS and other important disease targets was discussed in a plenary session at the recent AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics.
