Janux Therapeutics selling its TRACTr technology in $1 billion deal

18 December 2020

Janux Therapeutics has announced a strategic collaboration with Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK) valued at more than $1 billion to develop novel T cell engager (TRACTr) immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer.

The deal comes less than a month after Merck said it will acquire all outstanding shares of OncoImmune for an upfront payment of $425 million in cash, and gaining rights to its lead therapeutic candidate CD24Fc – also known as Saccovid - for the treatment of patients with severe and critical COVID-19.

The goal of the collaboration is to use Janux’ proprietary TRACTr technology to engineer novel, T-cell engager drug candidates directed against two cancer targets selected by Merck. Under the terms of the agreement, Merck has received an exclusive worldwide license to products and intellectual property developed from this collaboration.

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