Source: Merus N.V.
Merus N.V. (Nasdaq:MRUS), a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company developing innovative bispecific antibody therapeutics (Biclonics®), and the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), a leading comprehensive cancer center of excellence located in Barcelona, Spain, today announced a strategic research collaboration to develop novel agents for therapeutic applications.
The collaboration will combine Merus’ proprietary Biclonics® technology platform and VHIO’s expertise in clinical, translational and preclinical research. Josep Tabernero, M.D., Ph.D., M.Sc., Director of VHIO, has served as a scientific advisor to Merus for the past six years.
“VHIO is an internationally renowned leader in cancer research. This new collaboration builds on the successful working relationship established in the Phase 1/2 study for MCLA-128, a Biclonics® targeting HER3 signaling, and in the preclinical evaluation of MCLA-158, a Biclonics® targeting the Wnt and EGFR pathways,” said Ton Logtenberg, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Merus. “Professor Tabernero and his team have already provided Merus with invaluable scientific input. This relationship will now be extended and strengthened, applying the outstanding translational and clinical research capabilities of VHIO to the development of Biclonics® candidates already in the Merus pipeline and providing new translational and biological insights to support the development of the next generation of Biclonics® candidates.”
“We are excited to further expand our relationship with Merus,” said Dr. Tabernero. “VHIO’s capacity to advance cancer discovery through our seamless integration of translational science and clinical research is the perfect pairing with Merus’ differentiated oncology pipeline which will allow us to jointly accelerate the development of promising, innovative cancer therapies for our patients.”
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