Synthekine licenses cytokine agonist platform to Merck

US pharma giant Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK) is expanding further into the treatment of autoimmune diseases as it enters a license and research collaboration with USA-based Synthekine, an engineered cytokine therapeutics company.

The collaboration will leverage Synthekine’s proprietary surrogate cytokine agonist platform to discover, develop, and commercialize novel cytokine therapeutics.

“At Synthekine, we are focused on advancing cytokine science through three protein engineering platforms to create optimized therapeutics in this important space. Our surrogate cytokine agonist platform produces a new class of cytokine therapeutics that are designed to deliver selective immunotherapies for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and cancer,” said Debanjan Ray, chief executive of Synthekine.