Merck & Co., Inc. continued its business development push in oncology on 5 November with the announcement that it will pay $2.75bn in cash for VelosBio Inc., a privately held developer of antibody-drug conjugates and bispecific antibodies targeting receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 1 (ROR1), in a deal that is expected to close by the end of 2020.
San Diego-based VelosBio’s lead ADC candidate VLS-101 is in Phase I for the treatment of hematological malignancies and the first...