BRIEF—Fourth F-star option exercised by Merck KGaA

Ares Trading, an affiliate of Merck KGaA, has exercised a fourth licensing option with oncology company F-star Therapeutics, to develop another bispecific program under an ongoing immuno-oncology collaboration.

Merck will take on all future development and commercialization costs and will pay future success-based milestones and royalties on net sales.

The move builds on a long-standing collaboration, which saw Merck first in-licensing a candidate in 2019. A second option was exercised in July 2020 and a third in March 2021.

The total potential remaining milestone-based revenue due to F-star from the collaboration is approximately $765 million.