Merck Inks Oncology, Neurology Drug Discovery Pact With British Biotech, Curve Therapeutics

Privately-held Curve Therapeutics has inked a contract with Merck & Co Inc MRK to discover and validate modulators of up to five therapeutic targets using its Microcycle technology, initially for oncology and neurology indications.

• Under the agreement terms, Curve will receive an upfront payment and be eligible to receive research, development, and commercial milestones totaling up to $1.7 billion should all five therapeutic programs succeed. 
• Curve will also receive a royalty on net sales of any approved products resulting from the alliance.
• Curve will perform high throughput mammalian cell-based functional screening, hit characterization, data-mining and analysis, and Microcycle optimization. 
• Merck will be responsible for lead optimization, clinical development, manufacturing, and commercialization of compounds identified through the collaboration.
• Curve’s pipeline is led by drug candidates against hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) and KRAS G12D. 
• Price Action: MRK shares are down 0.67% at $77.29 during the market session on the last check Wednesday.