Mirus Bio–KKR: investment, 202105 acquisition Gamma Biosciences acquires controlling stake in Mirus Bio LLC

	Period	2021-05-18
	Successor	Mirus Bio–Merck (DE): investment, 202405– acquisition $600m by Merck from controlling stakeholder Gamma Biosciences (KKR)
	Money taker	Mirus Bio LLC
	Group	Merck (DE) (Group)
	Product	private equity

Gamma Biosciences. (5/18/21). "Press Release: Gamma Biosciences Acquires Controlling Stake in Mirus Bio to Expand Reach in Gene Therapy and Next Generation Vaccines". Menlo Park, CA & Madison, WI.

-- Lipid-polymer nanocomplexes (LPNCs) developed by Mirus enable superior transfection performance in a range of delivery applications

-- Investment will support GMP launch of TransIT VirusGEN for high-productivity, cell-adaptive transfection in viral vector manufacturing

-- Highly complementary engineering and delivery capabilities extend Gamma's advanced therapy offering

Gamma Biosciences, a global life sciences company serving the advanced therapy market, today announced that it has agreed to make a controlling investment in Mirus Bio, an innovator and developer of biomimetic, cell-adaptive lipid-polymer nanocomplexes (LPNCs) for nucleic acid delivery based in Madison, Wisconsin. Current Mirus shareholders will retain a substantial equity ownership stake in the company.

The transaction will support Mirus' plans to expand good manufacturing practice (GMP) production and commercialization of its flagship product TransIT® VirusGEN for large scale manufacturing of AAV and LV-based viral vectors for gene therapy, as well as further development and commercialization of the platform for in vivo delivery applications. Originally developed for therapeutic delivery of RNA, Mirus LPNCs have been adapted for a wide range of gene delivery applications. Demand for efficient and scalable gene delivery technologies continues to increase as larger volumes of viral vector are required to support the growing number of gene therapies in development. TransIT® VirusGen and Mirus' portfolio of additional products and services enable customers at both research and clinical scales achieve cost effective, industry leading functional titers.

Mirus will leverage Gamma Bio's strategic and commercial resources and will work closely with its other operating companies, including Univercells Technologies, Astrea Bioseparations, Nanopareil and BioMagnetic Solutions, to deliver an increasingly comprehensive range of solutions for the advanced therapy industry.

"Highly efficient, GMP compliant nucleic acid delivery into a wide variety of cell types will continue to be a critical path item for advanced therapies, from viral vectors such as AAV for gene therapy to engineered cellular therapies to novel mRNA based vaccines," said Matt Gunnison, President of Gamma Biosciences. "Mirus brings decades of experience in transfection and cell engineering and a portfolio of best-in-class transfection products for in vitro and in vivo delivery, adding a new foundational platform that complements Gamma's existing offering in advanced therapy manufacturing."

"Delivery of biomolecules into cells is a mainstay of Mirus' impact on biology research. Doing this efficiently, across a broad range of cells, while maximizing cell viability and recovery is what Mirus Bio has excelled at for more than 25 years," said Jim Hagstrom, PhD, President and Co-founder of Mirus Bio. "We are proud to join forces with Gamma Biosciences and KKR to build a leading player in next-generation bioprocessing, and we are excited to leverage their strong expertise in biomanufacturing as well as their global network in cell and gene therapy. Together, we are very well positioned to realize Mirus' vision of commercializing our scalable cGMP platforms for clinical use with the launch of TransIT VirusGEN® GMP, while maintaining our commitment to basic scientific researchers around the world."

Rothschild & Co served as exclusive financial advisor and Quarles and Brady served as legal advisor to Mirus. Sidley Austin LLP served as legal advisor to Gamma.

About Gamma Biosciences

Gamma Biosciences, a life sciences tools platform created by KKR, provides products and services to support the development and manufacturing of advanced biologic therapies. Our operating companies are committed to advancing the science and art of bioprocessing by delivering market-ready innovation and expertise that helps our customers, mainly biopharmaceutical companies and contract development and manufacturing companies, safely bring therapies to patients more quickly and efficiently. Gamma is a global company with offices and main operating facilities in North America, the U.K. and Belgium.

About Mirus

Mirus Bio pioneered scientific breakthroughs in non-viral gene delivery and continues to produce industry-leading transfection reagents. As we expand our expertise in nucleic acid delivery, we give life scientists the most advanced tools for gene expression, biotherapeutic protein production, virus manufacturing and genome editing. For more information about Mirus, please visit https://www.mirusbio.com.