Merck & Co extends immuno-oncology deal with Agenus

US pharma giant Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK) has extended its collaborative research term under its existing license agreement with US biotech firm Agenus (Nasdaq: AGEN) for the discovery and development of therapeutic antibodies to Merck proprietary immune checkpoints for the treatment of cancer.

Under the terms of the original agreement, Agenus will discover and optimize fully-human antibodies against two undisclosed Merck checkpoint targets using the Retrocyte Display platform. Merck will be responsible for the further development and commercialization of candidates generated under the collaboration. The discovery phase has been extended to April 2016. As previously disclosed, under the terms of the agreement, Agenus is eligible to receive around $100 million in milestone payments as well as royalties on worldwide product sales.

“This collaboration has resulted in encouraging outcomes, and we’re delighted that a leader in the rapidly developing immuno-oncology space has elected to extend this discovery phase of our collaboration,” said Robert Stein, chief scientific officer of Agenus, adding: "We believe our antibody generating technology is now the most extensive in vitro platform in the industry with significant advantages for creation of high quality antibody candidates.”