Lilly/Merus reached a $1.6 billion partnership

On January 19th Lilly's company, Loxo Oncology, announced that it had signed a research partnership and exclusive licensing agreement with Melus N.V. to research and develop up to three CD3-linked T-cell redirect dual-specific antibody therapies using Melus's proprietary Biclonics® platform and Loxo Oncology's scientific and rational drug design expertise.
Currently, Merus' CD3 T-Cell Joiner platform includes more than 175 novel and diverse anti-CD3 common light-chain antibodies with a wide range of affinity and properties that enable functional screening of large libraries for optimal performance.
terms of the agreement, Merus will lead discovery and early research activities, while Loxo Oncology will be responsible for additional research, development and commercialization activities.
Melus will receive a $40m cash advance and a $20m equity investment in Melus' common stock.
addition to this, Merus is eligible for potential development and commercialization milestone payments of up to $540 million per product, with three products totalling approximately $1.6 billion.
if Lilly succeeds in commercializing the products it is working with, Merus will also have tiered royalties from the median to the low double digits in product sales.
, chief operating officer of Lilly Loxo Oncology, said: "CD3-binding dual-specific antibodies are fast becoming one of the most transformative immunomodulation methods for treating cancer.
three therapies in this collaboration will be an important part of Loxo Oncology.
Melus has built a differentiated platform that promises to create a two-specific antibody therapy with a wider therapeutic index than it is today.
look forward to working closely with Melus to develop new potential drugs for cancer patients.
"Multiclonics Antibody Structure Melus is a clinical oncology company dedicated to the development of innovative full-length human dual-specific and triple-specific antibody therapy Multiclonics ®.
the antibody therapy, manufactured using an industry-standard process, has been found in preclinical studies to have some of the same characteristics as conventional monoclonal antibodies, such as long half-life and low immunogenicity.
years ago, Merus attracted the attention of pharmaceutical giants including Novarma, Johnson and Johnson, and Pfizer with its impressively innovative antibody technology.
Lilly is the latest company to work with it.
note that in January 2018, Synth Pharmaceuticals reached a strategic partnership with Melus to obtain Melus exclusive authorization to develop and commercialize three dual-specific antibodies in China using Melus' proprietary Biclonics® technology platform.
Melus is also developing its own internal pipeline, focusing on zenocutuzumab (also known as MCLA-128), a dual-specific antibody that binds to HER2 and HER3 binds and blocks HER3's interaction with its ligand, neuregulin 1 (NRG1).
in early clinical trials, zenocutuzumab showed good results in previously treated patients with NRG1 gene fusion pancreatic cancer.
source: Lilly gives $60M to Merus, ties in $1.6B in biobucks for next-gen cancer research pact