Merck KGaA signs partnership on cancer therapeutics

Merck KGaA has announced that it has signed a collaboration agreement with Archemix for the discovery, development and commercialisation of therapeutics for the treatment of cancer. These new drugs will be based on aptamers.

According to the agreement, Merck will pay Archemix an initial payment and additional research payments reaching up to $10 million (5.06 million pounds), with further milestone and royalty payments granted following the attainment of certain commercial landmarks.

Dr Bernhard Kirschbaum, executive senior vice president and director of research for Merck Serono, said: “Archemix is the leader in the field of aptamers, a new class of drugs that has tremendous potential in the battle against cancer.”

He added that he hoped this partnership agreement will result in the development of novel targeted cancer treatments to benefit physicians and patients.

Aptamers are single-stranded nucleic acids that can bind to target molecules in a similar way to antibodies through their well-defined three-dimensional shapes, combining the best features of antibodies and small molecule therapies.

Merck announced last week that its phase III clinical study of metastatic colorectal cancer treatment Erbitux (cetuximab) with irinotecan-based therapy had met its primary endpoint, the increasing of the median duration of progression-free survival