Merck & Co – known as MSD outside of the US and Canada – and Cyprumed have entered into a partnership aimed at developing oral formulations of Merck’s peptides, with the deal worth over $493m.
The agreement gives Merck non-exclusive global rights to use Cyprumed’s oral peptide delivery platform for an undisclosed number of targets. Merck also has the option to exclusively licence Cyprumed’s drug delivery technology for use with individual targets.
Under the terms of the deal, Merck will take on responsibility for the research, development, manufacturing and commercialisation of any product leveraging Cyprumed’s technology.
In exchange, Cyprumed will be eligible for up to $493m in upfront, development, regulatory and net sales milestones associated with the approval of any products resulting from the collaboration. The drug delivery company could also receive additional payments if Merck exercises its exclusive option.
Allen Templeton, vice president, pharmaceutical sciences, Merck Research Laboratories, said: “We look forward to collaborating with the Cyprumed team to leverage [its] technology to help advance our macrocyclic peptide development efforts.”
Cyprumed’s delivery platforms feature tablet formulations that it says “offer superior oral bioavailability” for therapeutic peptides, including GLP-1 analogues, macrocycles and mini-proteins.
“Our drug delivery technology, with its proven effectiveness and scalability, has the potential to unlock new opportunities in peptide therapeutics,” said Cyprumed’s chief executive officer, Florian Föger. “Continuing this collaboration with [Merck] to develop our innovative tablet formulations for additional targets is a great validation of our technology.”
The announcement comes just three weeks after Merck
said
it would be gaining exclusive worldwide rights to Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals’ phase 2 cardiovascular disease drug in a deal worth almost $2bn.
The agreement, which is expected to close in the second quarter of this year, will give Merck an exclusive licence to develop, manufacture and commercialise the candidate, HRS-5346, everywhere except the Greater China region.
Merck also
signed
a $2bn licensing deal with Hansoh Pharma in December, giving its exclusive global rights to Hansoh’s preclinical oral small molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist, HS-10535.
The company will aim to evaluate the drug and its “potential to provide additional cardiometabolic benefits beyond weight reduction,” Dean Li, president of Merck Research Laboratories, said at the time of the announcement.