Date: 2013-10-24
Type of information: R&D agreement
Compound: small molecule based drugs targeting proteins involved in cancer cell metabolism
Company: Merck Serono (Germany) Selvita (Poland)
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology
Type agreement: R&D
Action mechanism:
Disease:
Details: * On October 24, 2013, Merck Serono, the biopharmaceutical division of Merck, and Selvita, a biotechnology company based in Poland, have announced that they have entered into a collaboration to jointly discover small molecule based drugs targeting proteins involved in cancer cell metabolism. The partners plan to target key metabolic pathways involved in sustaining growth and proliferation of cancer cells. The aim of the collaboration is to deliver potential first-in-class molecules as candidate drugs for multiple oncology indications. Both companies will contribute to the collaboration’s research goals and bring their expertise in target validation, bioinformatics, medicinal chemistry, in vitro and in vivo biology and toxicology.
Financial terms: Milestone payments will be made to Selvita if Merck Serono initiates development programs or successfully commercializes collaboration candidates. As part of the research collaboration Selvita will receive from Merck Serono over 2013 - 2015 planned research funding of € 2.4 million and additional funding for external costs. Merck Serono will also perform additional research at its own cost within the jointly defined research plan. After the end of the collaboration the parties aim to continue the development of jointly discovered molecules which may constitute additional revenue stream for Selvita from development milestones.
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