C4 Therapeutics announces license, research collab with Merck

C4 Therapeutics (CCCC) announced that it has entered into an exclusive license and collaboration agreement with Merck (MRK) to develop degrader-antibody conjugates, an emerging modality designed to selectively target and neutralize disease-causing proteins in cancer cells. “We are thrilled to collaborate with Merck to innovate within the growing field of antibody-drug conjugates and evaluate the potential for combining the catalytic efficiency, potency, target specificity, and durability of degraders with the specific binding and delivery capabilities of antibodies,” said Andrew Hirsch, president and chief executive officer of C4 Therapeutics. “We look forward to leveraging our powerful TORPEDO platform in collaboration with Merck’s antibody-drug conjugation expertise to engineer novel medicines with the potential to transform patients’ lives.” Under the terms of the agreement, C4T will receive a $10 million upfront payment. C4T and Merck will collaborate to develop DACs directed to an initial undisclosed oncology target that is exclusive to the collaboration. For DACs directed to this initial target, C4T is eligible to receive milestone payments totaling approximately $600 million, as well as tiered royalties on future sales. The agreement also provides Merck with the option to extend the collaboration to include three additional targets that would be exclusive to the collaboration, which could yield option exercise payments as well as potential milestones and royalties. If Merck exercises all of its options to extend the collaboration, C4T would be eligible to receive up to approximately $2.5 billion in potential payments across the entire collaboration.