In­cyte antes up $200M — promis­es bil­lions more — to launch a bis­pe­cif­ic de­vel­op­ment deal with Merus

In­cyte is em­brac­ing Dutch biotech Merus and its bis­pe­cif­ic an­ti­body tech, agree­ing to buy in­to a new dis­cov­ery and de­vel­op­ment col­lab­o­ra­tion that starts with $200 mil­lion in an up­front and eq­ui­ty pay­ment and has the po­ten­tial to earn bil­lions more if it ma­tures in­to a co-com­mer­cial­iza­tion arrange­ment.

Al­ready backed by a trio of Big Phar­ma play­ers — J&J, Pfiz­er and No­var­tis — Merus has gained close at­ten­tion for its own bis­pe­cif­ic plat­form and a lead drug dubbed MCLA-128, which has pro­duced some in­trigu­ing da­ta in a Phase I/II tri­al. Merus has been promis­ing to re­lease in­ter­im Phase II da­ta on 128 by the end of this year. And while the da­ta has yet to ar­rive pub­licly, an ob­vi­ous ques­tion for now is whether In­cyte has al­ready seen more ma­ture da­ta that helped per­suade it to pull the trig­ger on this deal.

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