A startup that was spun out of a University at Buffalo lab has recently been acquired in a deal that could be worth up to $208 million.
Abceutics, Inc., a preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical business, has been acquired by Rahway, New Jersey-based Merck, a global biopharmaceutical company. Abceutics was spun out of UB researcher Joseph Balthasar’s lab, according to a press release.
The acquisition is for a potential consideration of up to $208 million, “including contingent milestone payments based upon the progress of candidates under the agreement,” the release said.
Abceutics, launched in 2020, has operated out of incubator space at UB’s New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, which also gave the company $50,000 from a division of Empire State Development.
The startup was co-founded by Brandon Bordeau and Toan Duc Nguyen, former students of Balthasar’s lab, and Larry Wienkers, a pharmaceutical consultant whose resume includes past vice president and global head of pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism at Amgen Inc. Bordeau, currently a Univeristy of Michicagn assistant professor, was the startup’s CEO.
The team created “payload-binding selectivity enhancers” that reduce the impact of antibody-drug conjugates (which target medicine to particular cells) on otherwise healthy cells. The enhancers do this by binding and neutralizing stray molecules.
“The Abceutics team has already made remarkable progress in translating this novel idea into reality with a series of candidates and compelling early evidence,” David Weinstock, Merck Research Laboratories’ vice president of oncology discovery, said in the release. "We look forward to further evaluating the potential of this innovative approach in the clinic.”
