Ropes & Gray Advises IDRx in Licensing Agreements with Merck KGaA and Blueprint Medicines in Connection with $122 Million Series A Financing

Ropes & Gray advised clinical stage precision cancer biopharmaceutical company IDRx in licensing transactions with Germany-based Merck KGaA and Blueprint Medicines to secure rights to IDRX-42 and IDRX-73- two small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors which are designed to inhibit the key genetic drivers and drug-resistant mutations of non-PDGFR-driven gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), a sarcoma of the GI tract. IDRx, which stands for “intelligently designed combination therapies,” has stated that its goal is to build de novo combinations to serve as transformative cancer treatments. Under the transaction with Blueprint, IDRx agreed to issue up to 15% of its Series A Preferred Stock to Blueprint and pay up to $217.5 million in future milestone payments, along with tiered royalty payments.

The license agreements were secured in connection with a $122 million Series A financing, led by Andreessen Horowitz and Casdin Capital with participation from Nextech Invest, Forge Life Sciences Partners and other undisclosed investors. The transactions were announced on August 2.

The Ropes & Gray team was led by life sciences partner Abigail Gregor and associates Daniel Freshman, Joe Muller and Mallory Ursul and included tax partner David Saltzman, health care partner David Peloquin, and IP transactions counsel Ryan Murphey.