GC Cell, Artiva, MSD ink licensing deal for CAR-NK therapy development

GC Cell said Thursday that it has entered into a tripartite licensing agreement with its U.S. affiliate, Artiva Biotherapeutics, and MSD (Merck & Co. in the U.S. and Canada) to develop and commercialize two chimeric antigen receptor-natural killer (CAR-NK) candidate therapies using MSD’s intellectual property.

The CAR-NK candidates, developed through GC Cell’s CAR-NK platform technology, originated from a joint research collaboration between Artiva and MSD.

Under the agreement, GC Cell has secured exclusive global rights to the CAR-NK candidates and will take the lead on their research and development. A GC Cell official said the collaboration aims to provide new treatment options for patients, positioning these candidates as potential innovations in cancer care, but noted that specific terms of the licensing agreement remain undisclosed.

This agreement comes approximately four months after MSD terminated its $1.86 billion deal with Artiva Biotherapeutics in June for the development of CAR-NK therapies targeting solid tumors. 

The original deal, signed in January 2021, involved the co-development of three CAR-NK therapies, with Artiva and Merck as the primary partners and GC Cell providing research services under a tripartite arrangement. Under the new agreement, while it remains a tripartite contract with GC Cell, Artiva, and Merck, GC Cell will assume leadership of the research and development efforts.