The agreement, in which Merck will pay the biotech an undisclosed initial sum to license drugs targeting a solid tumor, could net Epitopea up to $300 million down the line.
Facing the 2028 loss of exclusivity for its cancer blockbuster Keytruda, Merck continued to expand its pipeline Wednesday, announcing a pact with Epitopea to identify “hidden” tumor antigens in an undisclosed solid tumor.
The deal has Merck paying an undisclosed up-front amount to Epitopea, with milestone payments of up to $300 million per eventual product down the line. In exchange, Merck will get exclusive development and commercialization rights on any therapeutics emanating from the partnership.
Montreal and Cambridge U.K.–based Epitopea focuses on what it calls “Cryptigen” tumor-specific antigens, which the biotech describes as unmutated but “aberrantly expressed.” The company identifies these antigens through its CryptoMap platform, with the aim of producing off-the-shelf RNA-based immunotherapies.
Epitopea’s pipeline, which is still preclinical, is testing the platform in breast cancer, colorectal cancers and ovarian cancer.
“We continue to accelerate the development of our preclinical pipeline as we transition to a clinical-stage company on the ‘heels’ of our recent, oversubscribed, pre-Series A financing,” said Alan Rigby, CEO of Epitopea, in a statement, referring to the $31 million the company raised in October 2024. The company launched in 2021 on the back of research licensed from the Université de Montréal, with a $13 million seed round coming the following year, bringing the Epitopea’s total current backing to nearly $45 million.
“We believe that this strategic collaborative relationship with [Merck], a leader in immunotherapy therapeutic development, provides us with an additional opportunity to validate the potential impact of these differentiated tumor specific antigens,” Rigby added in the announcement statement.
The move is indicative of Merck’s continued interest in beefing up its pipeline through dealmaking and comes on the heels of its $2 billion licensing deal for Hansoh Pharma’s GLP-1 receptor agonist in December.
