On December 1, 2020 Dragonfly Therapeutics, Inc. ("Dragonfly"), reported that Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, has licensed its first TriNKET immunotherapy candidate from Dragonfly (Press release, Dragonfly Therapeutics, DEC 1, 2020, View Source [SID1234572060]). Merck and Dragonfly’s collaboration, initially focused on a number of solid tumor targets, began in October 2018. Earlier this year, the companies expanded their collaboration with a multi-target agreement to develop and commercialize additional natural killer ("NK") cell engager immunotherapies in oncology, infectious disease and immune disorders.

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"Merck is a powerful world leader in drug development across a wide number of therapeutic areas and continues to be a strong scientific collaborator," said Bill Haney, co-founder and CEO of Dragonfly Therapeutics. "We are delighted that Merck has exercised its option for this first immunotherapy candidate from our collaboration, and excited by the progress we are making together on bringing Dragonfly’s TriNKET technology to targets across a broader set of diseases."

Under the agreement Merck has exercised its option to license exclusive worldwide intellectual property rights on its first immunotherapy candidate developed using the TriNKET technology platform and Dragonfly has received an undisclosed payment associated with this milestone.