Merus Achieves Milestone with Novartis Option Fund
Company Reaches Milestone in Biclonics™ Program Partnered
with Novartis
Utrecht, The Netherlands, February 7, 2013 – Merus B.V., a
biopharmaceutical company focusing on innovative human antibody
therapeutics, today announced it has met the second milestone in
its option agreement with the Novartis Option Fund (NOF). The
achievement triggers an undisclosed milestone payment.
In 2010, Merus had entered into an option agreement with the
Novartis Option Fund for an exclusive license to one of
Merus’ oncology programs. The deal grants the Novartis Option
Fund rights to a product candidate created by the Biclonics™
and Oligoclonics™ technologies of Merus. Merus is potentially
entitled to milestone and license payments in excess of $200
million, as well as royalties.
Ton Logtenberg, CEO and founder of Merus, commented:
“Reaching this key milestone in our program partnered with
NOF underlines the power of our platform to generate antibodies
addressing multiple targets simultaneously with high potency and
the desired functional activity.”
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About Merus B.V.
Merus is a biotechnology company building a pipeline of innovative
human bispecific antibodies (BiclonicsTM) and single cell-derived
combinations of antibodies (Oligoclonics®) for cancer therapy.
Through the use of a common antibody light chain and CH3
heterodimerization technology, these full length IgG antibody
therapeutics can be robustly produced at high yields from a single
clonal manufacturing cell line using standard approaches.
Biclonics™ and Oligoclonics® bind to multiple
disease-associated targets such as growth factor receptors
expressed by tumor cells. Synergy is achieved by addressing
multiple pathways/mechanisms simultaneously, thereby eliminating
tumor cells more efficiently and preventing treatment escape.
Merus meets a significant need in the oncology field: the supply of
bispecific antibodies and single-cell derived antibody combinations
with improved clinical efficacy to address the limited potency of
conventional antibodies.
For further information, please visit our website at www.merus.nl
About Novartis Option Fund
The Novartis Option Fund is part of the Novartis Venture Funds.
Established in 1996, the Novartis Venture Funds currently manage
over US$850 million in committed capital and are invested globally
in more than 50 private life sciences companies across
therapeutics, vaccines, devices and diagnostics. As a financially
driven corporate life science investor, the Novartis Venture Fund
invests in those companies which have the potential to lead the
next innovation wave in new areas that will be critical to patient
care. The Novartis Venture Funds team of ten investment
professionals located in Basel, Switzerland and Cambridge,
Massachusetts, brings together extensive expertise in the biotech
and pharmaceutical industry and venture capital.
For more information: http://www.venturefund.novartis.com
Media Inquiries:
akampion
Dr. Ludger Wess or Ines-Regina Buth
Tel. +49 (0)40 88 16 59 64 / +49 (0)30 2363 2768
info(at)akampion.com
Company Inquiries:
Merus B.V.
S. Margetson - s.margetson@merus.nl
Padualaan 8
3584CH Utrecht, The Netherlands
Licensing inquiries:
jason.avery@merus.nl
Posted: February 2013
