Privately-held Curve Therapeutics has inked a contract with Merck & Co Inc (NYSE: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.
