Merck Serono announces new collaboration with Mersana Therapeutics

Merck Serono has announced a new collaboration with Mersana Therapeutics focusing on the development of next-generation antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs).

The companies will leverage Mersana’s Fleximer technology to generate ADCs for multiple undisclosed targets. Both parties will test a variety of ADCs by utilising Mersana's platform technologies and several cytotoxic agents as conjugates.

ADCs are an emerging form of medication that involves the use of an antibody linked to cytotoxic drugs, with the antibody component specifically targeting and delivering the cytotoxic drug to cancer cells, resulting in higher drug levels at the tumour site.

Dr Andree Blaukat, head of the translational innovation platform oncology at Merck Serono, said: "This new collaboration provides an exciting opportunity to expand our oncology drug discovery and development portfolio into the evolving ADC space."

This comes as part of a wider strategy by Merck Serono to embrace a collaborative research and development model that uses strategic partnerships to drive innovation, while remaining consciously agnostic of the source of potential novel assets and technologies.

Earlier this month, a new partnership was announced with Sysmex Inostics to create a blood-based RAS biomarker test for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.