European Biopharmaceutical Companies to Collaborate on Cancer Drug Development

Two European-based biopharmaceutical companies have agreed to collaborate on the development of new anticancer therapeutic agents.

The venerable—founded in 1668—pharmaceutical and chemical company Merck (Darmstadt, Germany) has entered into a three-year collaborative agreement with Selvita (Krakow, Poland), which has been in the drug development business since 2007.

The objective is to identify and exploit potential first-in-class small molecules as lead candidate drugs for multiple types of cancer. Each partner will contribute funding and resources to support the collaboration, as well as bring their expertise in target validation, bioinformatics, medicinal chemistry, in vitro and in vivo biology, and toxicology.

Under the terms of the agreement, Merck will have an exclusive license to any joint intellectual property, and Selvita will receive milestone payments and royalties upon Merck's successful completion of product development and commercialization. The project includes a joint research phase up to lead identification, after which Merck will continue to develop any candidate drug.

"We are excited about our new collaboration and to continue our productive relationship with Selvita and to build upon our collective efforts of the last two years,” said Andree Blaukat, head of translational innovation platform oncology at Merck. “We are making strong progress in the area of cancer metabolism and remain focused on bringing innovative new therapeutic options to patients that have the potential to make a substantial difference in their lives."

Krzysztof Brzozka, CSO at Selvita, said, "Collaboration between Merck and Selvita is an excellent example of a successful joint drug discovery platform where both parties contribute their expertise to identify and validate novel therapeutic targets, in parallel developing new compounds and advancing them towards clinical development. This sort of deep and intensive type of collaboration is at the core of Selvita’s vision of modern drug discovery."

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