EQRx

"Lower-price me-too drugs" company that raised ~$2.2B and in-licensed China-origin oncology assets. It was wound down in 2023 and absorbed by Revolution Medicines for its cash.

1. Core Product / Service

EQRx was founded by Alexis Borisy and launched publicly in January 2020. It was financed initially through convertible notes issued in October 2019 [1]. Its thesis was to develop "fast-follower" versions of validated drug classes and sell them at much lower prices to payers and health systems.

The company did not run its own discovery labs. Its pipeline came from in-licensing and from design partnerships [1]. By end-2022 it had more than 10 programs, five of them clinical:

Asset	Source	Stage at peak
Aumolertinib (EQ143), 3rd-generation EGFR TKI	In-licensed from Hansoh (China), 2020	Approved in China; US Phase 3b TREBLE started August 2022 [1]
Sugemalimab (EQ165), anti-PD-L1	In-licensed from CStone (China), 2020; ex-Greater China rights	Positive Phase 3 data in China [1]
Lerociclib (EQ132), CDK4/6 inhibitor	In-licensed	Phase 2 in breast cancer [1]

Before any approval, EQRx moved to "market-based pricing" for aumolertinib and lerociclib in the US, which effectively gave up the low-price thesis [1].

2. Target Users & Pain Points

Intended customers: US payers, PBMs and integrated delivery networks facing high oncology drug prices.
What went wrong: a me-too drug needs payers to switch, and FDA scrutiny of data generated mainly in China (such as sintilimab in 2022) undermined that path for in-licensed China assets.

3. Competitive Landscape

Player	Overlap	Note
AstraZeneca (osimertinib)	EGFR TKI incumbent	The drug aumolertinib was positioned to undercut
kailera-therapeutics	US vehicle for China-origin assets	The 2024+ NewCo model is a cleaner version of EQRx's in-licensing play
absci	One of EQRx's design partners	Shows EQRx bought, rather than built, its discovery

4. Unique Observations

Wet lab: effectively none in-house.
- The only property in its FY2022 10-K is 33,539 sq ft of office space in Cambridge, MA, plus an office in London [1].
- Discovery went to partners: Aurigene, Exscientia and Relay for small molecules, AbCellera for antibodies, Absci for proteins, and Evotec for multi-modality work [1].
- Clinical trials relied on CROs, and manufacturing on CMOs [1].
- Even so, it had 362 full-time staff at end-2022: 190 in R&D and 173 in business, commercial and G&A, plus about 59 contractors [1]. This is the virtual end of the 2018–2022 spectrum, with no lab and a large headcount.
The exit was a capital transfer. Revolution Medicines closed an all-stock acquisition on 2023-11-09 [2][3]. It accounted for the deal mainly as a capital-raising transaction, expected about $1.1B of net cash, and wound down all EQRx programs [2].
A precursor to today's NewCos. EQRx's 2020 in-licences from Hansoh and CStone came before the 2024–2026 wave of China-asset NewCos. Those NewCos keep one asset per company and carry far less overhead.

5. Financials / Funding

Series A (January 2020): $218.0M cash plus $22.0M of converted notes [1].
Series B (November 2020): $568.7M; press reported "$500M" [1][5].
Cumulative private: about $809M [1].
De-SPAC with CM Life Sciences III (December 2021): $1.2B PIPE. Total gross proceeds since inception were about $2.2B [1].
Losses: operating losses of $355.9M in FY2022. Cash was $1.4B at end-2022 [1].
Exit: acquired by Revolution Medicines (0.1112 RVMD shares per EQRx share), closed November 2023 [2][3].

6. People & Relationships

Founder: Alexis Borisy (serial founder; Third Rock / Foundation Medicine background).
CEO at exit: Melanie Nallicheri [4].
Investors: GV, ARCH, Andreessen Horowitz, Casdin, CM Life Sciences [1].
Licensors: Hansoh, CStone. Design partners: Exscientia, Relay, AbCellera, absci, Evotec [1].
Acquirer: Revolution Medicines [2].

Sources

[1] EQRx, Form 10-K FY2022, SEC EDGAR, filed 2023-02-23 (accessed 2026-10-14)
[2] Revolution Medicines, Form 10-K FY2023, SEC EDGAR (accessed 2026-10-14)
[3] Revolution Medicines press release, "Revolution Medicines completes acquisition of EQRx", 2023-11-09 (accessed 2026-10-14)
[4] Fierce Biotech, "EQRx's low-cost drug dream ends in Revolution" (accessed 2026-10-14)
[5] Goodwin, "EQRx to accelerate growth", 2021 (accessed 2026-10-14)