CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cue Biopharma™, Inc., an immunotherapy company developing a novel, proprietary class of biologics engineered to selectively modulate the human immune system to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases, today announced a strategic research collaboration and license agreement with Merck, known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada. 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.
While specific financial arrangements are not being disclosed, Cue Biopharma will receive an up-front payment. Cue Biopharma is also 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.
Immune Responses, On Cue™
Cue Biopharma 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.
About Cue Biopharma
Cue Biopharma is an innovative immunotherapy company developing a novel, proprietary class of biologics engineered to selectively modulate the human immune system to treat a broad range of cancers and autoimmune disorders. We design biologics to engage and modulate the activity of disease-associated T cells in the patient’s body, offering significant therapeutic advantages while potentially minimizing or eliminating unwanted side effects.
We believe our CUE Biologics platform’s modular capabilities will allow us to target antigen-specific T cell populations in a variety of indications using a simple peptide exchange within previously validated drug frameworks. This flexibility could truncate the drug selection and development process, moving effective therapeutics from discovery to clinical validation more rapidly and cost efficiently than current industry standard timelines and costs.
Headquartered in Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA, we are led by an experienced management team and scientific and clinical advisory board (SAB/CAB) with deep expertise in the design and clinical development of protein biologics, immunology and immuno-oncology.
For more information, visit www.cuebio.com.