News brief­ing: Mer­ck buys in­to A2's T cell ther­a­py plat­form; Small Soli­genix re­ports PhI­II fail in head and neck can­cer

Mer­ck is dip­ping its toes in­to a cell ther­a­py part­ner­ship with A2 Bio­ther­a­peu­tics, with an of­fer to co-fund clin­i­cal de­vel­op­ment and al­lo­gene­ic man­u­fac­tur­ing ac­tiv­i­ties through Phase I.

In par­tic­u­lar, the phar­ma gi­ant has its eyes on an undis­closed can­di­date uti­liz­ing A2’s Tmod plat­form, which com­bines ac­ti­va­tion and block­ing mech­a­nisms in or­der to kill tu­mor cells while spar­ing healthy ones.

The deal fea­tures an up­front, an eq­ui­ty in­vest­ment and re­im­burse­ment of cer­tain ex­pens­es. Mer­ck is al­so promis­ing opt-in and mile­stone pay­ments plus roy­al­ties, while keep­ing the door open for col­lab­o­ra­tion on a sep­a­rate pro­gram.

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