On November 23, 2021 Dragonfly Therapeutics, Inc. ("Dragonfly"), reported that Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, reported that it has licensed its second TriNKET immunotherapy candidate from Dragonfly (Press release, Dragonfly Therapeutics, NOV 23, 2021, View Source [SID1234596004]). Merck licensed its first TriNKET immunotherapy candidate from Dragonfly in November 2020. Merck and Dragonfly’s collaboration, initially focused on a number of solid tumor targets, began in October 2018. The companies expanded their collaboration last year 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 now exercised its option for this second immunotherapy candidate from our initial 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 second immunotherapy candidate developed using the TriNKET technology platform and Dragonfly has received an undisclosed payment associated with this milestone.