Merck KGaA Wants Bids For Cancer Therapy Partners

Merck KGaA Wants Bids for Cancer Therapy Partners

September 18, 2014

By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Sr. Editor

Drug giant Merck KGaA (MRK) has been reaching out to other pharmaceutical companies in the hopes of forming a partnership to help study and market its new cancer immunotherapy drug, the company said Thursday.

"We have initiated a competitive process to select the best partner for the global co-development and co-commercialization of our anti-PD-L1 compound,” Stefan Oschmann, the head of Merck’s pharmacy units,” said in a statement on Thursday.

"We are currently in advanced discussions with major oncology players and aim to reach an agreement by year-end," he said.

The German drugs and chemicals maker said it will be partnering on the development of its anti-PD-L1 agent, an immuno-oncology therapy that it hopes will attack and destroy cancerous tumors.

Merck’s main competitors in the field are Swiss-based Roche (RHHBY), AstraZeneca (AZN) and Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), all of which are taking a stab at the multi-billion dollar cancer therapeutics market.

In the same statement, Merck said that if clinical trials go well, it would be investing an additional $168 to $192 million in developing cheaper generic versions of biosimilar drugs, adding to a previous figure of $128 million slotted for the project.

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