Merck Serono in CAR-T alliance
The cohort of companies developing products for treating cancer with genetically engineered T-cells has increased with the announcement that Merck Serono and Intrexon Corp will collaborate to generate new drug candidates using the technology.
The cohort of companies developing products for treating cancer with genetically engineered T-cells has increased with the announcement that Merck Serono and Intrexon Corp will collaborate to generate new drug candidates using the technology.
Merck Serono is the biopharmaceutical unit of Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, Germany. Under the agreement, Merck will pay Intrexon $115 million upfront to investigate chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies against two oncology targets. The targets were not disclosed. Intrexon will receive research funding and is also eligible for up to $826 million in development, regulatory and commercial milestones as well as tiered royalties on the sales of any future products. Merck will be responsible for the clinical development and commercialisation of any compounds while Intrexon will manage platform development. The US company will also have an opportunity to explore targets independently from the agreement and may grant Merck opt-in rights to these projects during clinical development.
For its part, Intrexon, which is based in Maryland, will draw on the expertise of Boston-based Ziopharm Oncology Inc in developing the T cell and gene expression technology. Intrexon and Ziopharm are already working together on a switch technology that reportedly can turn gene expression on and off in the engineered T cells. Intrexon has said that it will share the upfront and milestone payments from Merck with Ziopharm.
Merck joins a growing number of companies working on CAR T cell therapy. Novartis and the University of Pennsylvania are the pioneers. They have recently been followed by a host of others including Juno Therapeutics Inc, Bluebird Bio Inc, Kite Pharma Inc and Autolus Ltd.
Merck KGaA announced its agreement with Intrexon Corp on 30 March 2015.
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