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Keeping in line with the biotech M&A frenzy seen for much of the year, Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) announced a deal Monday to buy Tilos Therapeutics.
Only recently, the pharma giant agreed to buy Peloton Therapeutics in a deal valued at up to $2.2 billion.
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What Happened
Merck struck an agreement to buy privately held Tilos, which develops therapies targeting the latent transforming growth factor — or TGT-beta — complex for treating cancer, fibrosis and autoimmune diseases, for up to $773 million, including an upfront payment as well as contingent milestone payments.
"Tilos has developed a compelling portfolio of candidates that employ a novel approach to modulating the potent signaling molecule TGF-beta by binding to latency-associated peptide, with potential applications across a range of disease indications," Dean Li, senior vice president for discovery and translational medicine at Merck Research Laboratories, said in a statement.
Why It's Important
TGF-beta inhibitors are antibodies that target a protein called latency-associated peptide, and could come in handy to break the in-built or acquired resistance to checkpoint inhibitors such as Merck's Keytruda. They are therefore termed immunotherapy boosters.
A TGF-beta inhibitor when paired with Keytruda can help a patient's immune system track a tumor it might have missed previously.
Merck shares were trading up slightly at $82.49 at the time of publication Monday.
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Crypto Whales Are Loading Up — Are You?
New research shows the biggest crypto buyers are back. And this time? They could hold for the possibility that Bitcoin will surpass $100,000 in 2024. You don’t want to miss the next massive crypto bull run like we saw in 2020 and 2021. To know exactly what’s going on and what to buy… Get Access To Benzinga’s Best Crypto Research and Investments For Only $1.