Biohaven And Merus Collaborate To Develop Novel Bispecific Antibody Drug Conjugates

(RTTNews) - Biohaven Ltd. (BHVN) and Merus N.V. (MRUS) announced a research collaboration and licensing agreement aimed at co-developing three innovative bispecific antibody drug conjugates (ADCs). The partnership will leverage the Merus Biclonics technology platform alongside Biohaven's next-generation ADC conjugation and payload platform technologies.

As per the terms of th agreement, Biohaven is responsible for the preclinical ADC generation of three Merus bispecific antibodies under mutually agreed research plans. The agreement includes two Merus bispecific programs generated using the Biclonics platform, and one program under preclinical research by Merus. Each program is subject to mutual agreement for advancement to further development, with the parties then sharing subsequent external development costs and commercialization, if advanced.

As per the transaction, Merus will receive an upfront payment and license fee at ADC candidate nomination of the first program, with Merus to assume the preclinical bispecific antibody generation cost, and Biohaven to assume the preclinical ADC generation cost. Thereafter, upon mutual agreement to advance each program, the parties plan to share further development and commercialization costs.