Mer­ck signs small ac­qui­si­tion to make AD­Cs safer

An­ti­body-drug con­ju­gates have caught the bio­phar­ma world by storm, and Mer­ck has been an ac­tive deal­mak­er in the space via multi­bil­lion-dol­lar pacts with Dai­ichi Sankyo and Sichuan Kelun-Biotech.

Now, the New Jer­sey phar­ma gi­ant is link­ing up with a much small­er start­up to po­ten­tial­ly make AD­Cs safer, mean­ing less harm to healthy cells.

Mer­ck will pay up to $208 mil­lion to buy Abceu­tics, ac­cord­ing to an April 5 press re­lease from the Uni­ver­si­ty at Buf­fa­lo, where the start­up was spun out of re­searcher Joseph Balthasar’s lab.

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