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Company News: Merus Achieves Milestone with Novartis Option Fund

– Company Reaches Milestone in Biclonics™ Program Partnered with Novartis –

Merus B.V., a biopharmaceutical company focusing on innovative human antibody therapeutics, today announced it has met the second milestone in its option agreement with the Novartis Option Fund (NOF). The achievement triggers an undisclosed milestone payment.

In 2010, Merus had entered into an option agreement with the Novartis Option Fund for an exclusive license to one of Merus’ oncology programs. The deal grants the Novartis Option Fund rights to a product candidate created by the Biclonics™ and Oligoclonics™ technologies of Merus. Merus is potentially entitled to milestone and license payments in excess of $200 million, as well as royalties.

Ton Logtenberg, CEO and founder of Merus, commented: “Reaching this key milestone in our program partnered with NOF underlines the power of our platform to generate antibodies addressing multiple targets simultaneously with high potency and the desired functional activity.”