July 26 Quick Takes: Merck, Kelun enter second development deal

For the second time this year, Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK) and Sichuan Kelun Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (SZSE:2422) have aligned for a development deal, this time around an antibody-drug conjugate against an undisclosed target. Kelun will receive $35 million up front and is eligible for $901 million in milestones, plus royalties; the parties will collaborate on early clinical development, and Merck has a global license. The latest partnership follows Merck’s exercise of an option to license TROP2-targeting ADC SKB-264, which is in Phase III testing to treat triple-negative breast cancer and Phase II for non-small cell lung cancer and other solid tumors. 

Shares of BridgeBio Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ:BBIO) fell 16% to $9.29 Tuesday as investors weighed an interim Phase II readout that posted comparable, if numerically inferior, efficacy data for infigratinib compared with Voxzogo vosoritide from BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN) to treat growth in children with achondroplasia. BridgeBio’s oral small molecule inhibitor of FGFR3 demonstrated a mean change from baseline in annualized height velocity (AHV) of 1.52 cm/yr (p=0.02, n=11) in children five years and older at a dose of 0.128 mg/kg once daily in Cohort 4, the highest evaluated, with a responder rate of 64%. BioMarin’s drug, a CNP peptide analog also targeting FGFR3 that’s injected subcutaneously, demonstrated an AHV change of 1.57 cm/yr; it received accelerated approval in November. Durability will be in the spotlight for BridgeBio’s next readout; the Cohort 4 data cut came at 26 weeks, compared with 52 weeks for Voxzogo. BridgeBio, which said it has begun enrolling a 0.25 mg/kg cohort, plans to present full data at a medical conference in 1H23. ...