Merck & Co Inc. (NYSE:MRK) Enters License and Collaboration Agreement With Artiva Biotherapeutics for CAR-NK Therapies

Merck & Co Inc. (NYSE:MRK) has entered an exclusive global license and collaboration agreement with Artiva Biotherapeutics for the development of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) NK cell therapies for solid tumor-associated antigens. The agreement leverages Artiva’s off-the-shelf allogeneic NK cell manufacturing platform alongside its novel CAR-NK tech.

Merck to pay $30 million to gain two CAR-NK programs from Artiva

Initially, the collaboration will include two CAR-NK programs, but it also provides the option of a third program neither of which are in the current or planned Artiva pipeline. According to the agreement, Artiva will develop CAR-NK programs through the GMO manufacturing campaign and investigative new drug preparation which it will transfer to Merck for clinical development and commercialization.

Merck will gain control of the programs and in return, it will pay Artiva an upfront payment of $30 million-plus milestone payments. The $30 million will cover the two programs and the company will pay another $15 million to cover the third therapy. Also, Artiva is legible for around $612 million in milestones and when everything has been included, Merck could pay up to $1.8 billion if the programs are successful.

Merck looking to expand its oncology offering

It is important to note that Mercy has been establishing Keytruda as a cancer treatment pillar but has been on side-lines as peers moved into cell therapies. Notably, the lack of activity represented the view that, although CAR-T therapies had been breakthrough in blood cancer treatments, there was a need for advances for solid tumors treatment and large scale production of cell therapies.

The therapies Merck gained control over are natural killer cells instead of T cells common in CAR-Ts. Most importantly the NK cells provided several advantages such as freedom from GvHD and ability to penetrate cells and simplifying off-the-shelf treatment production.

Fred Aslan, Artiva’s CEO said that NK cell therapy technology is growing and Merck could have chosen a different partner but picked Artiva after significant diligence and deep landscape review.  Artiva had a differentiated platform for manufacturing and delivery of cryopreserved allogeneic CAR-NK and NK therapies.