Merck KGaA pens $855M upfront, biobucks pact with Debiopharm for next-gen cancer asset

Germany’s Merck, looking to beef up its cancer pipeline and move beyond its checkpoint inhibitor Bavencio in the future, has signed up to in-license a late-stage oncology assert from Swiss biotech Debiopharm.

The drug pact zeroes in on xevinapant (aka Debio 1143), an oral inhibitor of apoptosis proteins antagonists, which the companies say is the only medicine in its class in late-stage clinical development and “has the potential to be first in class.”