What You Should Know:
– Personalis, Inc. (NASDAQ: PSNL) today announced agreements with long-time collaborators Merck and Moderna that accelerate the advancement of the company’s business strategy.
– The company has received a $50M investment from Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, and separately has signed a multi-year extension with Moderna to utilize Personalis’ ImmunoID NeXT Platform® and technology for V940/mRNA-4157, an investigational individualized neoantigen therapy (INT), being jointly developed by Merck and Moderna.
$50M Investment from Merck
Merck has agreed to purchase $50 million of Personalis common stock in a private placement at a price of $3.56 per share, which was the last reported closing price of Personalis’ common stock as reported on The Nasdaq Global Market on December 18, 2024. Following the closing, Merck will own approximately 14 million shares of Personalis common stock, representing an approximately 16.5 percent beneficial ownership interest in Personalis.
V940/mRNA-4157 Background
V940/mRNA-4157 is a personalized cancer vaccine that leverages cutting-edge mRNA technology and neoantigen profiling to generate individualized treatment strategies for cancer patients. The collaboration between Personalis, Merck, and Moderna has already demonstrated the power of Personalis’ tumor profiling platform in identifying the neoantigens that are specific to an individual’s tumor.
Since the inception of the V940/mRNA-4157 clinical development program, Merck and Moderna have relied on Personalis’ ImmunoID NeXT™ platform for precise tumor profiling. This platform, which combines whole exome sequencing with advanced bioinformatics and machine learning, has been instrumental in identifying tumor-specific neoantigens that are used in the creation of personalized cancer therapies.
“Individualized therapies have the potential to transform cancer care,” said Chris Hall, CEO of Personalis. “A key focus for Personalis has been supporting Merck and Moderna in this important program and we are thrilled to extend the collaboration potentially through to treatment of cancer patients on a routine basis.”
