Updated: Blackstone commits $300M to a former Merck antibody for asthma, COPD

Black­stone’s next ma­jor bet is on a for­mer Mer­ck mon­o­clon­al an­ti­body for atopic der­mati­tis that a new biotech will test for asth­ma and COPD.

The al­ter­na­tive as­set man­ag­er’s life sci­ences di­vi­sion, which re­cent­ly inked a large fi­nanc­ing deal with Mod­er­na, will com­mit up to $300 mil­lion to sup­port the new port­fo­lio com­pa­ny Uniq­ui­ty Bio, ac­cord­ing to a Wednes­day morn­ing re­lease.

The FDA has ac­cept­ed the small biotech’s Phase 2 plans for a TSLP-tar­get­ed an­ti­body known as sol­rik­i­tug, which it li­censed from Mer­ck for undis­closed terms. In the “next month,” Uniq­ui­ty will start test­ing its ex­per­i­men­tal med­i­cine for COPD and asth­ma in two glob­al Phase 2a tri­als, Uniq­ui­ty CEO Bri­an Lor­tie told End­points News.

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