Mersana inks ADC deal with Endo Pharma

Privately-held Mersana Therapeutics has joined the antibody-drug conjugate space, announcing its first ADC deal with fellow USA-based Endo Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ENDP), in return for an undisclosed upfront payment and a potential of over $270 million in royalties.

Mersana’s proprietary conjugation technology is comprised of the company’s Fleximer polymer and a broad array of customizable linker chemistries for attaching diverse, potent payloads and targeted antibodies. Under this agreement, Endo will pay an upfront fee to Mersana for the right to utilize the Fleximer technology to develop novel ADC candidates against a single cancer target.

“Our proprietary conjugation technologies, centered on Fleximer, are particularly well-suited to expand the therapeutic potential of ADCs by enabling greater cytotoxic payload, diverse mechanisms of action, better tumor penetration, and improved stability achieved with optimized linkers,” said Nick Bacopoulos, chief executive of Mersana. “We look forward to working with Endo to incorporate their antibodies against a very promising oncology target into next-generation Fleximer-ADC candidates. We expect this to be just the first of several important Fleximer-ADC collaborations for Mersana.”