Infinimmune, Merck enter into antibody discovery pact

By Kunal Das

March 31 (Reuters) – Biotech firm Infinimmune said on Tuesday it has entered into a deal with drugmaker Merck that could be worth up to about $838 million in milestone payments, to discover and develop multiple antibodies for various undisclosed diseases.

* Under the agreement, the privately held Infinimmune willreceive an undisclosed upfront payment and could earn milestonepayments tied to multiple drug candidates worth up to about $838million. * Merck will have the exclusive right to develop andcommercialize antibody candidates that come out of thecollaboration. * Infinimmune said it will use its proprietary platform toscreen large numbers of human immune cells and identifynaturally occurring antibodies, then use AI tools to refine andimprove them. * “The main feature of the platform is that we don’t haveto design antibodies from scratch. We’re discovering andadvancing antibodies that evolution has already selected andhelped engineer inside the human body into medicines,”Infinimmune CEO Wyatt McDonnell told Reuters. * The companies will work on undisclosed targets designatedby Merck for the partnership. * “We’re not constrained to one area of biology, and thepartnership that we have with Merck is also not constrained to aspecific disease area,” McDonnell said. * Outside the Merck deal, Infinimmune is also developing itsown early-stage medicines for moderate-to-severe eczema andother immune-related diseases.

(Reporting by Kunal Das in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Sahal Muhammed)