Deerfield Management announced on June 30 that it has acquired a trispecific T cell engager program for its portfolio company, Boulevard Bio, by licensing an autoimmune asset from Beijing-based METiS TechBio. The deal includes a $20 million upfront payment and could total up to $1.6 billion in milestone payments.
Boulevard Bio now holds worldwide rights to MTS-128, an antibody discovered through METiS’s AI-driven NanoForge platform. The trispecific approach of MTS-128 provides an additional biological mechanism compared to traditional bispecific T cell engagers commonly used in the field.
Little public information is available about Boulevard Bio beyond this announcement. In May, METiS and Deerfield began a partnership focused on developing in vivo protein therapeutics and immunotherapies; however, financial details of that collaboration were not disclosed.
METiS describes itself as the first AI-powered drug delivery company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Its pipeline covers central nervous system diseases, metabolism, oncology, immunology, and animal health. The company's most advanced product is MTS-004—a small molecule that has completed Phase 3 testing for pseudobulbar affect, a disorder characterized by sudden uncontrollable laughing or crying.
Deerfield’s move reflects growing interest among venture capitalists in Chinese biotech assets as China continues to emerge as a source of innovation in biotechnology.
