The Hindu Business Line : Advinus, Merck join hands for drug development

DISCOVERING DRUGS: Mr R. Gopalakrishnan (right), Executive Director, Tata Sons and Chairman of the Board of Advinus, and Dr Rashmi Barbhaiya, CEO & MD, Advinus, at a press conference in Mumbai on Thursday. — Paul Noronha

Mumbai , Nov. 16

The Tata Sons-promoted Advinus Therapeutics (P) Ltd has entered into a drug discovery and clinical development collaboration with US-based Merck Inc to jointly develop drugs for metabolic disorders such as diabetes and obesity.

Advinus and Merck will work together to develop clinically validated `drug candidates' for metabolic disorders.

Merck will retain the right to advance the most promising of these candidates into late-stage clinical trials.

"We have been offered a basket of 10 target programmes. Initially we will begin with two target programmes. We will identify the two targets very soon," said Dr Rashmi H. Barbhaiya, CEO and Managing Director, Advinus.

Advinus will receive an upfront payment and could receive up to $74.5 million (around Rs 333 crore) for each target.

The company is also eligible for royalties on the sales of any products that result from the collaboration.

"This collaboration provides an avenue for Advinus to gain access to cutting edge technologies from Merck while leveraging its India-based discovery and development capabilities," said Dr Barbhaiya.

"Merck is looking forward to establishing its first research-based collaboration in India," said Dr Merv Turner, Senior Vice-President (Worldwide Licensing and External Research) of Merck.

"This agreement furthers our strategy of building global alliances and our commitment to discovering and developing innovative medicines for metabolic disorders."

Advinus has R&D centres at Pune and Bangalore. The company is planning to triple its manpower strength at the Pune facility, which currently employs 65 people, over the next three years.

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