Cue Biopharma announces research collaboration with Merck

US based pharma company Cue Biopharma™, Inc. has announced a strategic strategic research collaboration and license agreement with Merck.

Under the terms of the deal, the CUE Biologics™ platform will be leveraged to develop biologics engineered to selectively modulate disease-relevant T cell subsets for the treatment of autoimmune disease. The multi-year collaboration will encompass multiple disease targets across certain primary disease indication areas.

Cue Biopharma is immunotherapy company developing a novel, proprietary class of biologics engineered to selectively modulate the human immune system to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Cue Biopharma will receive an up-front payment and will be eligible to earn up to $374 million in research, development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments in addition to tiered royalties on sales, if all pre-specified milestones associated with multiple products across the primary disease indication areas are achieved.

This company is developing biologics that mimic antigen presenting cells (APCs) to selectively and effectively deliver signals to disease-associated T cells. This approach to generating highly targeted and selective T cell responses could result in more effective and safer therapies for addressing cancer and autoimmune diseases.

We have developed a proprietary platform for the design and development of CUE Biologics for in vivo (in the patient’s body) T cell-based immunotherapy.

In the context of cancer, CUE Biologics are designed to selectively activate disease-associated T cells to proliferate and attack tumor cells. For the treatment of autoimmune diseases, CUE Biologics are designed to selectively ablate disease-associated T cell responses directed against self tissue.