Durham’s Tavros Therapeutics sold to subsidiary of German giant Bayer AG

Durham-based Tavros Therapeutics, a precision oncology company spun out of Duke University, has been acquired by a subsidiary of global life sciences titan Bayer AG.

Financial terms of the deal with San Diego-based Vividion Therapeutics, an independent and wholly owned subsidiary of Bayer, were not disclosed.

“We are thrilled for the opportunity to combine forces with Vividion,” said Eoin McDonnell, Ph.D., chief executive officer and co-founder of Tavros. “We have enjoyed a highly productive partnership over the past two years and have seen the clear synergy between our platforms. We look forward to building on our success to date to develop novel small-molecule therapeutics against elusive protein targets and maximize our ability to bring new treatment options to patients.”

The acquisition expands Vividion’s functional genomics expertise and capabilities, bringing proprietary methods for genomic screening that can identify new target opportunities, as well as support discovery and translational efforts toward known targets, the companies said in a news release. 

“The addition of Tavros will expand and strengthen our chemoproteomics drug screening capabilities and open up a new target space to fuel the growing pipeline of novel therapies across oncology and immunology,” said Aleksandra Rizo, M.D., Ph.D., chief executive officer of Vividion. “We have already seen the power of combining Vividion’s platform and compound library with Tavros’s functional genomics capabilities in uncovering druggable vulnerabilities in tumor cells. We are excited to take this next step to unlock the full potential of our work together for the patients in need.”

Vividion and Tavros have been working together for the last two years under a strategic collaboration to discover and develop novel precision therapeutics capable of addressing cancer-causing proteins that have eluded traditional small-molecule drugs.

“The acquisition of Tavros is an exciting next step as we seek to accelerate the development of previously undruggable targets to improve outcomes for patients with significant high unmet medical needs,” said Juergen Eckhardt, M.D., head of business development and licensing at Bayer’s Pharmaceuticals Division. “It is also the first acquisition in the history of Bayer Pharmaceuticals for one of our ‘arms-length’ model companies, demonstrating the flexible operating model while Vividion continues to operate autonomously to drive breakthrough innovations in precision oncology and immunology.”

Tavros’s precision oncology platform leverages next-generation functional and computational genomics technology to uncover unique vulnerabilities within tumors and discover novel targets and biomarkers. 

Describing its technology as “modular, scalable and fast,” the company said the platform can precisely and directly identify the paired genetic interactions that form the basis for breakthrough targets and first-in-class cancer drugs. 

“Cutting-edge functional genomics and computational analysis accelerate the discovery of de-risked, druggable targets to improve patient outcomes, minimizing toxicity, and quickening development in defined patient subsets,” according to the company.

Tavros has had strategic partnerships with Zentalis Pharmaceuticals and OpenBench, as well as Vividion.

The company was founded in 2019 by McDonnell, a molecular cancer biology graduate of Duke, and Kris Wood, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmacology and cancer biology at Duke. It is backed by venture capital investors, including Raleigh-based Piedmont Capital Investments.