Sema4 Announces Merger With CM Life Sciences

February 10, 2021

By Bio-IT World Staff 

February 10, 2021 | Sema4 announced its planned merger with CM Life Sciences today. The transaction combines Sema4’s leading AI- and machine learning-powered integrated genomic and clinical open-architecture data platform, with CM Life Sciences, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, sponsored by affiliates of Casdin Capital, LLC and Corvex Management LP.

The deal values Sema4 at approximately $2.0 billion and is expected to close during the second quarter of 2021. Upon closing of the transaction, CM Life Sciences will be renamed and its common stock will be listed on the Nasdaq global market under a name and a ticker symbol to be announced at a later date.

The transaction is expected to provide up to $793 million in cash proceeds. It also includes a fully committed PIPE of $350 million from leading growth and life science investors including Casdin Capital, Corvex Management, Fidelity, Morgan Stanley Perceptive, SoftBank, T.Rowe, Viking, and existing investors. Up to $343 million of the cash will be paid to Sema4 stockholders. The remainder will be used by Sema4 in its business. Sema4 will continue to operate under the Sema4 management team led by Eric Schadt, Ph.D., Founder and CEO.

“This transaction is a significant milestone for Sema4,” said Schadt in a press release. “The additional resources will allow us to greatly accelerate our business plans organically and inorganically, developing and bringing in more cutting-edge precision model solutions across multiple disease areas. This is the most exciting time in the history of our industry and I look forward to working closely with Eli [Casdin, founder and CIO of Casdin Capital], Keith [Meister, Chairman of the Board CM Life Sciences], and their teams, to deliver on the massive potential to transform clinical and life sciences through better leveraging of data.”

Sema4 is a patient-centered genomic and clinical data insight platform company. The company claims the largest, most comprehensive, and fastest growing integrated genomic & clinical data platform. Its database includes more than 10 million patient genomic profiles and de-identified clinical records, integrated and delivered in a way that enables physicians to proactively diagnose and manage disease.

“Eric has built a truly unique business at Sema4 with a combination of scale, growth and innovation that we rarely see. Revenues are projected to grow from $200 million to $500 million and gross margins to double from today to 2023, while Sema4 leverages its existing platform in women’s health and oncology to quickly grow into high margin relationships and partnerships across health systems and biopharma partners,” said Meister in the same press release. “This transaction affords investors the unique opportunity to benefit from Sema4’s rapid growth, business transformation and the multiple expansion opportunities that we believe this growth will drive.” 

The transaction has been unanimously approved by each of CM Life Sciences’ and Sema4’s Board of Directors and substantially all of the shareholders of Sema4. The transaction is subject to the approval of the CM Life Sciences shareholders and other customary conditions and is expected to close in the second quarter.