Nuevolution signs second agreement with Merck & Co
Merck will further develop Nuevolution compounds
Danish drug discovery technology specialist Nuevolution has entered an exclusive licensing agreement with a subsidiary of Merck & Co for small molecule compounds targeting an undisclosed intracellular target for use as leads in Merck’s drug discovery and development.
Under the agreement, Merck gains rights to further develop and commercialise the compounds. This is the second agreement between Copenhagen-based Nuevolution and Merck.
Nuevolution will receive an undisclosed upfront payment and milestone payments. In addition, the company is eligible to receive royalties on the commercial sales of approved products. Further financial details have not been disclosed.
The firm says the agreement delivers on its new strategy to transform itself from a technology platform biotech company to a developer of lead compounds.
Nuevolution applies its patented Chemetics technology to identify small molecule drug candidates for therapeutically important targets. This technology uses DNA labelling to allow small molecule screening at an unprecedented scale for lead discovery. The technology allows efficient screening of billions of molecules against biological targets.
‘This agreement is the first pre-clinical compound out-licensing agreement for Nuevolution. It marks the immediate realisation of our chosen strategy to both offer access to our technology as well as out-license leads identified by the use of the Chemetics platform,’ said Alex Gouliaev, CEO of Nuevolution. ‘We are very pleased to see that the compounds will be developed further by Merck.’