Mer­ck ex­tends ADC push by lend­ing a hand to C4 with small up­front for pro­tein de­grad­er work

Mer­ck is once again wad­ing in­to the an­ti­body-drug con­ju­gate space af­ter mak­ing a splash with its multi­bil­lion-dol­lar Dai­ichi Sankyo deal at this year’s ES­MO con­fer­ence.

But this time the phar­ma gi­ant is lin­ing up with a biotech tak­ing a dif­fer­ent an­gle to the hot field, and it’s do­ing so much more mod­est­ly.

Mer­ck will pay $10 mil­lion up­front to C4 Ther­a­peu­tics, one of the ear­ly pro­tein degra­da­tion star­tups, to work on so-called de­grad­er-an­ti­body con­ju­gates, the drug­mak­ers said Tues­day morn­ing. Bris­tol My­ers Squibb took a sim­i­lar ap­proach last month in a $100 mil­lion up­front deal for an Orum Ther­a­peu­tics as­set.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER