Merck Serono and LDC to partner on cancer drug research

Merck Serono is to ally with the Lead Discovery Center (LDC) in a partnership focusing on the discovery of innovative new cancer therapies.

This collaboration with the LDC, a small molecule drug discovery spin-off of Max Planck Innovation, will be based on an innovative technology platform intended to identify cancer-combating kinase inhibitors.

Both organisations will be contributing expertise, resources and infrastructure to support the development of the target molecules into pharmaceutical lead compounds.

It is hoped that the use of this new technology will allow for the discovery of potent and selective allosteric kinase inhibitors that can help to prevent the spread of cancers.

Dr Bernhard Kirschbaum, executive vice-president for research and development at Merck Serono, said: "We are delighted about this agreement with the LDC and believe that this collaboration has a great potential to provide the basis for the development of further treatment options in oncology."

This comes after Merck Serono announced earlier this week that it will be allying with Domain Therapeutics on research into new Parkinson's disease drugs.