1. Scrip
  2. >>Business
  3. >>Strategy

Third Rock Ventures Rolls Its Own

 
• By Alex Lash

Third Rock Ventures has raised $1.3 billion by going all-in on early-stage biotech with a homegrown company strategy that requires that its own people run many of its portfolio companies after launch. It’s hard to say definitively that the strategy is working, but then again, its investors just re-upped for a new half-billion-dollar fund.

It was Raiders of the Lost Ark for biotech geeks. The arks were the musty sample cabinets or lonely freezers at the back of dead-end corridors, and the samples inside held microbes particular to patches of dirt in far flung locales. It wasn’t cheap to hunt down the old soil collections that drug companies built across much of the 20th century as potential sources for new drugs. Then again, Third Rock Ventures can afford to do a lot of things most life science VCs wouldn’t dream of these days.

Third Rock’s portfolio company Warp Drive Bio Inc., headed by the firm’s partner Alexis Borisy, needed to collect tens...

More from Strategy

Asia Deal Watch: SunRock, Escugen Collaborate On CCR9-Targeted ADC

 
• By Joseph Haas, Lisa Takagi, Sushmita Panda, and Xu Hu

Axcelead/Lotte Biologics/Kanaph and NextCure/Simcere also unveil ADC-focused pacts, plus deals involving Avata/Oceanus, GSK/Bharat Biotech, Cullinan/Genrix and more.

BIO Notebook: Woodcock Calls For Doing The Right Thing, Dealmaking Remains Constrained

 
• By Mandy Jackson, Joseph Haas, and Sarah Karlin-Smith

Highlights from Day Four of the BIO International Convention include Woodcock offering practical advice on rare disease trials, the sorry state of dealmaking mid-year, Novartis discussing its approach to partnering, and Generate looking for funding to move into Phase III.

ASCO: Pushing The Frontiers Of ADCs

 
• By Mary Jo Laffler

Antibody-drug conjugates are a major part of the oncology pipeline, and data presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting highlight the emergence of new technologies.

Skyhawk Looks To Soar With Huntington’s Hope

 
• By Kevin Grogan

Oral RNA splicing modulator has gone into a Phase II/III trial

More from Business

Syncona Looks To Go Private As Market Decline Deepens

 
• By Andrew McConaghie

While some are calling for Syncona to be wound up, the UK-based company believes many existing and new investors will back the creation of new private fund.

ASCO: Pushing The Frontiers Of ADCs

 
• By Mary Jo Laffler

Antibody-drug conjugates are a major part of the oncology pipeline, and data presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting highlight the emergence of new technologies.

Top 10 Drugs Q1 2025: Keytruda Dominates; Mounjaro Climbs

 
• By Eleanor Malone

Lilly’s Mounjaro for diabetes rose from sixth to third position among the top-selling drugs in the first quarter of 2025, Rival Ozempic retained second position and Merck & Co’s immuno-oncology blockbuster Keytruda stayed far ahead.