Merck, Dragonfly Therapeutics to Collaborate on Solid-Tumor Immunotherapies
The companies will work together to discover, develop, and commercialize immunotherapies for patients with solid-tumor cancers in a collaboration worth $695 million per program.
On Oct. 1, 2018, Dragonfly Therapeutics announced a collaboration with Merck-known as MSD outside the United States and Canada-to discover, develop, and commercialize immunotherapies for patients with solid tumor cancers.
According to Dragonfly, the collaboration grants Merck the option to license exclusive worldwide intellectual property rights to products developed using Dragonfly’s immunotherapy technology platform, Tri-specific Natural Killer (NK) cell Engagement Therapies (TriNKETs) for solid-tumor malignanciesfor a number of solid-tumor programs, with the potential to earn Dragonfly up to $695 million in up-front and milestone payments per program as well as royalties on sales of approved products.
Dragonfly reports that the TriNKETs platform improves immunotherapy using NK cells to yield both new and broadly applicable therapeutic tools and a portfolio of anti-cancer drugs. The platform provides an active connection between cancer cells and cells of the immune system, including NK cells, T cells, B cells, and other cells that work against cancer.
Source: Dragonfly Therapeutics
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