Abbott Laboratories and MerLion Pharma collaborate on drug discovery

Abbott Laboratories and Singapore-based drug discovery company MerLion Pharmaceuticals have entered into a collaboration for the discovery of natural product-based drugs for use in a broad range of therapeutic areas, such as oncology, metabolics, antivirals, immunology and neuroscience.

Under the terms of the agreement, Abbott will contribute a number of therapeutic targets for MerLion Pharma to screen against its sample collection. Abbott will have responsibility for lead optimisation, clinical development and marketing of the products worldwide. MerLion Pharma will receive research and clinical milestone payments and royalties and will also retain rights to selected discoveries that are not progressed by Abbott.

'Abbott is pleased to have access to MerLion's exceptional natural product collection to accelerate drug discovery efforts on some of our most exciting research targets,' said James B. Summers, divisional vice president, advanced technology, Abbott Global Pharmaceutical Discovery.

MerLion Pharma is a privately owned company, whose assets and capabilities include an outstanding natural product sample collection, advanced high throughput screening technology, assay development and medicinal chemistry capabilities. It is staffed by 60 employees and occupies 20,000 square feet of labs and offices in the Singapore Science Park.