Synthekine Announces $525 Million Global Collaboration with Merck to Advance Proprietary Surrogate Cytokine Agonist Platform

On November 1, 2021, Synthekine announced a global research collaboration and license agreement with MSD. The collaboration will leverage Synthekine’s proprietary surrogate cytokine agonist technology platform to discover, develop, and commercialize novel cytokine therapeutics.

Under the terms of the agreement, Synthekine and Merck will collaborate on initial research, and Merck will have exclusive rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialize surrogate cytokine agonists for up to two cytokine targets. Synthekine will be eligible for up to $525 million in development, regulatory, and commercial milestones, plus tiered royalties on net sales for each target, and Merck will also provide research funding to Synthekine.

Synthekine focuses on immunology research, leveraging structural insights into cytokines and integrating multiple engineering technologies to develop optimized therapies targeting cytokine pathways, primarily for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases. These novel immunotherapies include modified cytokines, cytokine-enhanced cell therapies, and surrogate cytokine agonists.

Cytokines are small proteins that enable immune cells to "communicate," and they are central to the body's response to disease and the maintenance of immune homeostasis. However, developing cytokines as therapeutic agents is challenging due to their pleiotropic nature, meaning they can induce a wide array of responses across different cell types, potentially leading to reduced efficacy or dose-limiting toxicities. Synthekine’s alternative cytokine agonists can dimerize or oligomerize cytokine receptors in ways that neither wild-type nor mutant cytokines can, thereby creating a range of possibilities for selectively activating signaling pathways.

References:

[1] Synthekine Establishes Collaboration with Merck to Develop Therapeutic Candidates Using its Proprietary Surrogate Cytokine Agonist Platform. Retrieved November 1, 2021, from https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211101005184/en/

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