Merck and Selvita collaborate on drug discovery

Merck’s healthcare business has entered into a three-year collaboration to validate new therapeutic concepts in the field of oncology with drug discovery company Selvita, headquartered in Poland. The aim of the collaboration is to deliver potential first-in-class small molecules as lead candidate drugs for multiple oncology indications.

The collaboration will steer a joined portfolio of discovery projects in a risk/reward sharing model and builds on the framework that the two companies have developed during a two-year partnership in cancer metabolism which began in 2013. Both companies will contribute funding and resources, as well as bring their expertise in target validation, bioinformatics, medicinal chemistry, in vitro and in vivo biology and toxicology.

Merck will have an exclusive licence to the joint intellectual property and Selvita will receive milestone payments and royalties on successful development and commercialisation of products by Merck. The collaboration consists of a joint research phase up to lead identification, after which Merck will further research and develop the projects on its own.

“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,” said Selvita Chief Scientific Officer Krzysztof Brzozka.

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