Company Watch

Nicholas Piramal partners with Merck for drug discovery and development

Our News Bureau - Mumbai

Nicholas Piramal India (NPIL) and Merck, which operates in India through its subsidiary, MSD Pharmaceuticals, has announced a research and development collaboration agreement to discover and develop new drugs for two selected targets provided by Merck. NPIL will be responsible for carrying out an integrated drug discovery program from hits to leads through pre-clinical candidate selection, followed by investigational new drug (IND), enabling non-clinical studies and human clinical trials demonstrating proof-of-concept primarily for oncology. Merck will have an option to advance the most promising drug candidates into late stage clinical trials and to commercialise these drug candidates. NPIL will be eligible to receive milestone payments associated with progress in the development of drug candidates of up to $175 million per target, plus royalties on sales of any products resulting from the collaboration. Commenting on the collaboration agreement, Dr Swati Piramal, Director-Strategic Alliances and Communications, NPIL, said, "The Merck-Nicholas Piramal research collaboration is a major step in bringing the cross border synergies to drug development, which should have cost, quality and time advantages and should benefit patients worldwide in reducing the burden of disease." Mervyn Turner, Senior Vice-President, Worldwide Licensing and External Research, Merck, said, "We are excited to collaborate with a company with the discovery and development capabilities of NPIL." He added, "This agreement furthers our strategy of building global alliances that expand and advance Merck's pipeline, especially in countries such as India with rapidly expanding drug discovery competencies."