Merck Serono and Intrexon announce new cancer drug collaboration

Merck Serono has announced a new partnership with Intrexon to develop and commercialise a promising class of cancer therapies.

The exclusive strategic collaboration and license agreement will see the companies working together to create chimaeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) cancer drugs. The aim will be to develop a CAR-T platform to generate several drug candidates.

CAR-T cells are genetically-engineered T-cells with synthetic receptors that recognise a specific antigen expressed by tumour cells. By binding to a target, the therapy is able to trigger an immunological attack against the cancer cells.

The agreement provides Merck Serono with exclusive access to Intrexon's proprietary and complementary suite of technologies to engineer T-cells with optimised and inducible gene expression.

Belen Garijo, president and chief executive officer of Merck Serono, said: "The collaboration with Intrexon underlies Merck Serono's focus on innovation and enhances its research and development technology portfolio in immuno-oncology."

This comes after the firm partnered with life science company Illumina last month to create new diagnostic solutions in the field of oncology.