Rigontec Buy Adds RNA Tech To Merck & Co IO Portfolio

06 Sep 2017

• By Lubna Ahmed

Merck & Co. adds to its immuno-oncology pipeline with the acquisition of Rigontec for an upfront payment of €115m, with the three-year-old company offering Merck a unique approach to immunotherapy and a lead candidate currently in Phase I/II trials, the first of its kind in human studies.

Two groups of candies in different colors symbolizing the parties to the negotiations

Merck & Co. Inc. has acquired oncology-focused Rigontec GMBH for an upfront payment of €115m and possible additional contingent payments of up to €349m. The Germany-based company caught the big pharma's eye with its unique RNA-based technology that takes advantage of the innate immune system's retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I) pathway, a part of the immune system that has not been traditionally targeted by oncology players.

Regina Hodits, general partner at Wellington Partners Life Sciences, an investor in Rigontec, told Scrip that though there is a lot of activity in the general IO and checkpoint inhibitor space, the innate pathway of the immune system, where Rigontec's expertise lie, is a powerful part that has been barely used for immuno-oncology approaches