Arix Bioscience plc (“Arix”, LSE: ARIX) Arix oncology portfolio company VelosBio to be acquired by Merck (NYSE: MRX) for $2.75 billion in cash

Arix Bioscience plc (“Arix”, LSE: ARIX) Arix oncology portfolio company VelosBio to be acquired by Merck (NYSE: MRX) for $2.75 billion in cash

• Arix co-led the Series A financing and joined the VelosBio Board of Directors in October 2018. VelosBio has since progressed from a pre-clinical to clinical stage company and completed an oversubscribed Series B financing in July 2020, supported by new and existing shareholders.

• VelosBio is a privately held, clinical-stage U.S. biopharmaceutical company, committed to developing first in class cancer therapies targeting tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 1 (ROR1), a novel oncology target.

• VelosBio’s lead investigational candidate is VLS-101, an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targeting ROR1 that is currently being evaluated in a Phase 1 and a Phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of patients with hematologic malignancies and solid tumours, respectively.

• In addition, VelosBio is developing a preclinical pipeline of next-generation ADCs and bispecific antibodies targeting ROR1 with the potential to complement VLS-101 by offering alternative methods of tumour cell killing.

Jonathan Tobin, Managing Director at Arix and VelosBio Board Director, commented: “Merck’s acquisition of VelosBio is a testament to the VelosBio leadership team, the pipeline they have built and the development strategy they have executed. We have worked closely with the VelosBio team and our co-investors through the company’s early development and we are incredibly proud of the progress the company has made in such a short period of time. As one of the top forces in oncology drug development globally, Merck makes the perfect partner to maximise the potential benefit of VelosBio’s lead candidate, VLS-101, for the treatment of patients with cancer.”