Merus NV added Gilead Sciences Inc. to its collaboration roster, entering a deal potentially worth more than $1.5 billion. While its previous agreements have focused primarily on bispecific antibodies, the Gilead alliance takes aim at trispecifics, antibodies capable of binding three targets at once. In other news, shares of Biomx Inc. (NYSE:PHGE) jumped 194% March 6, ending the day at 68 cents, up 45 cents, on news that it was merging with fellow phage-focused company Adaptive Phage Therapeutics Inc. and raised $50 million in a concurrent private placement.
Could Merus NV be on course to get the fourth “tumor agnostic” drug approved, a groundbreaking approach to cancer that focuses on mutations rather than location of the disease? According to a trial update revealed at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference the biotech from Utrecht, the Netherlands, could join Merck & Co Inc., Bayer AG/Eli Lilly and Co. and Roche Holding AG with its early-to-mid stage candidate, zenocutuzumab.
DUBLIN – The latest update from Merus NV’s phase I/II trial of zenocutuzumab (MCLA-128) – and its early access program – in patients with solid tumors harboring an NRG1-fusion offered a slight improvement on the data disclosed in an abstract released last month, in the run-up to the 2021 American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting.
DUBLIN – Merus NV is banking $40 million up front, plus an equity investment of $20 million, under a research collaboration and license agreement with Eli Lilly and Co.’s Loxo Oncology arm to develop up to three CD3-directed bispecific T-cell engager antibodies. Each program also has up to $540 million attached in development and commercialization milestones, taking the total potential value of the deal to $1.68 billion. Merus would also receive tiered royalties on any product sales, ranging, in percentage terms, from mid-single-digits to low-double-digits.
BOSTON Researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center presented encouraging, though very early, data on Merus NV's bispecific antibody MCLA-128 for the treatment of patients with NRG-1 gene fusions at the AACR-NCI-EORTC Molecular Targets meeting on Sunday.
Merus N.V.'s second-quarter earnings report included an important update on phase I MCLA-117, which Jefferies analyst Maury Raycroft said could be a best-in-class "game-changer" for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) – a candidate that "alone is a reason to own the stock," in his view.