Advinus

New Delhi, Nov 16: Tata Group's Advinus Therapeutics (P) Ltd and Merck&Co today formed a drug discovery and clinical development collaboration in the area of metabolic disorders.

As per the agreement, the two companies will work together to develop clinically validated drug candidates for metabolic disorders, with Merck retaining the right to advance the promising candidates into late-stage clinical trials.

Advinus will receive an upfront payment and could potentially receive milestone payments of upto 74.5 million dollars for each target included in 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 company Chief Managing Director Rashmi Barbhaiya.

It is also eligible for royalties on the sales of any products that result from the collaboration which will begin with two target programmes and could expand to include others over time.

Merck Senior Vice President (Worldwide Licensing and External Research) Merv Turner said, ''We are looking forward to establish our first research-based collaboration in India with Advinus. This agreement furthers our strategy of building global alliances and our commitment to discovering and developing innovative medicines for metabolic disorders, a growing public health issue.'' Advinus, focused on Pharmaceutical R&D with no Generics or API focus, offers an integrated service platform for process chemistry, DMPK, clinical pharmacology, safety assessment, analytical R&D, bio analytical and formulation development.

Merck&Co discovers, develops, manufactures and markets vaccines and medicines to address unmet medical needs.

UNI