Merck Serono and Compugen launch biomarker business

Merck Serono has allied with Compugen to launch a novel start-up company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel biomarkers for predicting drug-induced toxicity.

The new company, Neviah Genomics, will operate from Merck Serono's Israel bioincubator and will initially be funded by Merck Serono Ventures, with Compugen utilising certain proprietary predictive discovery technologies and taking an equity ownership stake.

Using Compugen's computational discovery platforms, a range of advanced toxicogenomics diagnostic tests will be developed to predict toxicity and integrated into a biomarker platform for use in drug development.

Susan Herbert, executive vice-president for global business development and strategy at Merck Serono, said: "We believe that our joint technology and resources represent a unique basis for a start-up to enter this emerging field that has the potential to significantly reduce the risk of drug discovery and development."

This comes after the firm announced a new collaboration with Dr Reddy's Laboratories earlier this month in the field of biosimilar therapies.