Merck gains rights to LaNova’s PD-1/VEGF bispecific antibody in deal worth over $3.2bn
Merck & Co – known as MSD outside the US and Canada – has entered into an exclusive global licensing agreement worth over $3.2bn to advance LaNova Medicines’ investigational PD-1/VEGF bispecific antibody. The company will expand its oncology pipeline by gaining an exclusive global licence to develop, manufacture and commercialise LM-299.
A phase 1 clinical trial of the candidate in advanced solid tumours is currently enrolling patients in China following promising preclinical results demonstrating strong inhibition of tumour growth and a well tolerated safety profile.
LM-299 can be used in combination with a range of treatment modalities, including immuno-oncology drugs, small molecule targeted therapies, antibody-drug conjugates and T cell activators, according to LaNova, which described the drug as a “promising cornerstone therapy for the next generation of tumour immunotherapy”.
LaNova will receive an upfront payment of $588m under the deal and will be eligible for up to $2.7bn in milestone payments associated with the technology transfer, development, regulatory approval and commercialisation of LM-299 across multiple indications.
Dean Li, president, Merck Research Laboratories, said the company is continuing to assemble a “strong and diversified oncology pipeline spanning differentiated mechanisms and multiple modalities”.
The deal comes shortly after Merck announced that it had acquired Yale University oncology spinout Modifi Biosciences in a deal worth $1.3bn. The agreement, unveiled at the end of October, gave Merck access to preclinical compounds designed to exploit DNA repair defects in difficult-to-treat cancers, including glioblastomas.
In the same month, the company entered into a clinical development collaboration with Exelixis to evaluate new combination treatments for head and neck cancer and renal cell carcinoma, and signed a licence and research collaboration agreement worth up to $1.9bn with Mestag Therapeutics to identify new targets for inflammatory diseases.
It also announced in October that it had completed its acquisition of an investigational B-cell depletion therapy from Curon Biopharmaceutical. The candidate, CN201, is currently being evaluated in phase 1 and phase 1b/2 clinical trials for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and relapsed or refractory B-cell acute lymphocytic leukaemia, respectively.
