Merck spent $230 million to develop cancer therapy with vertex

Source: Biovalley 2017-1-16 pharmaceutical giant Merck recently announced that the company has reached a cooperation agreement with biopharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company, and the two sides will jointly carry out cancer therapy research According to the agreement, Merck will first pay up to $230 million in advance to the latter Vertex first provided Merck with vx-970, a rad3 related (ATR) protein kinase inhibitor, which is currently in phase II clinical research Last year, the company published a phase I clinical study of the drug in the treatment of patients with platinum resistant solid tumors Preliminary data show that the drug has the potential to continue to promote as a heavyweight drug The drug is currently in eight clinical research projects supported by the National Cancer Research Center (NCI) Merck also obtained vx-803, another ATR inhibitor The mechanism of action of this drug is similar to vx-970, which blocks DNA damage and repair of tumor cells by inhibiting ATR At present, the drug is in phase I clinical research The company's third drug, vx-984, is also a drug that inhibits DNA damage and repair in tumor cells However, unlike the first two drugs, vx-984 mainly destroys the DNA repair process of tumor cells by blocking a kinase called DNA-PK Merck is no stranger to the mechanism of the drug, and the company is also interested in DNA-PK inhibitor m3814 at an early stage of research In addition to these drugs, vertex will also transfer to Merck two preclinical research drugs It can be said that this agreement will greatly enrich the strength of Merck's cancer treatment research and development pipeline Previously, the company's strong cooperation with Pfizer in the research of tumor immunotherapy also demonstrated the company's determination to make tumor drug business the company's future research and development center For vertex, this agreement brings sufficient cash flow to the company, which can effectively support the company's research and development in the field of cystic fibrosis.