Mer­ck KGaA takes back con­trol of PD-L1 can­cer drug as Pfiz­er al­liance ends

Mer­ck KGaA re­port­ed Mon­day that it had re­gained full rights to its PD-L1 an­ti­body Baven­cio af­ter a near­ly 10-year al­liance with Pfiz­er was ter­mi­nat­ed.

With the long-stand­ing pact now off be­tween the two phar­mas, Pfiz­er gets a 15% roy­al­ty on Baven­cio net sales, in­stead of a prof­it-shar­ing set­up with the Ger­man phar­ma. The new arrange­ment goes in­to ef­fect on June 30.

While the two com­pa­nies “op­er­a­tional­ize their re­spec­tive on­go­ing clin­i­cal tri­als” for Baven­cio, Mer­ck KGaA will take con­trol of all fu­ture R&D work, plus man­u­fac­tur­ing and sup­ply chain over­sight.

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