Fate Therapeutics has agreed to buy Canada's Verio Therapeutics, which is developing drug candidates that target the activation of endogenous stem cells. Financial details were not disclosed, but according to a release, Fate has formed a Canadian subsidiary, which will continue Verio's discovery and development operations in Ottawa.
Verio Therapeutics is advancing the work Michael Rudnicki and Lynn Arthur Megeney, two leading stem cell scientists who have made breakthrough discoveries relating to muscle and pancreatic regeneration. The company--which was just founded in 2008--has a preclinical drug for promoting the growth of new insulin-producing beta cells to treat diabetes and for regenerating cardiomyocytes following heart attack to treat severe cardiac dysfunction. "We look forward to working with Drs. Rudnicki and Megeney, as well as the Canadian stem cell community at large, to continue to push the field's frontier and expand our leading adult stem cell biology platform for the development of innovative drug candidates," Fate CEO Paul Grayson says in a statement.
Xconomy notes that while the financials of the deal aren't disclosed, La Jolla, CA-based Fate rounded up $30 million in a Series B last year, so money shouldn't be much of a problem. A spokesperson for the company tells Xconomy that Fate has enough money to last two years. The acquisition adds an Ottawa office to a company that already has operations in Seattle and Boston, and brings the developer's headcount to 40 employees.
- here's Fate's release
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