Merus and Biohaven Strike New ADC Collaboration

 

On the heels of an FDA approval for its monoclonal antibody Bizengri, Merus will generate three novel cancer-targeting antibodies that it will pass over to Biohaven to link into antibody drug-conjugates.

Late Sunday, the Dutch oncology company Merus and Connecticut-based Biohaven announced a co-development and licensing partnership that will leverage each company’s respective tech.

Under the terms of the deal, Merus will generate three antibodies—one of which is already in preclinical studies—and Biohaven will transform each of them into antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) using the company’s in-house platform. Financial details were not disclosed.

Reactions from market analysts were warm if restrained. “We view the deal as an incremental positive, providing longer-term optionality to [Merus’s] pipeline,” wrote BMO Capital Markets analysts Etzer Darout and Lukas Shumway.

Merus, which finished 2024 strong with an FDA greenlight on its monoclonal antibody Bizengri for certain non-small cell lung cancers and pancreatic cancers, is set to get an undisclosed upfront payment and licensing fees from Biohaven from the first developed program coming out of the partnership. The collaboration also requires both companies to share in external development and commercialization costs.

Biohaven’s pipeline covers a range of conditions, but the deal with Merus is specifically aimed at cancers. “We believe this collaboration with Merus will accelerate our ability to create highly differentiated multispecific ADCs, leveraging Biohaven’s innovative conjugation and payload technologies to deliver optimized ADCs with the potential to significantly benefit patients across various cancer types through an enhanced efficacy and safety profile,” Brian Lestini, president of Biohaven’s oncology division, said in a statement.

Vlad Coric, M.D., Biohaven’s chairman and CEO, is speaking Monday evening at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. In addition to the new Merus partnership that could be up for discussion, Biohaven in December reported positive Phase I for an IgG-degrading treatment aimed at a variety of different autoimmune diseases, with other clinical trials on the backs of various treatments aimed at major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and spinocerebellar ataxia also ongoing.

https://www.biospace.com/deals/merus-and-biohaven-strike-new-adc-collaboration