Israeli biotech company Biolojic Design has announced the signing of a development agreement with German pharmaceutical company Merck. Biolojic Design uses AI and computerized biology to develop smart antibodies including antibodies that can change their activity within the body according to developments in a disease.
As part of the agreement, Biolojic will develop one of its antibodies for Merck with funding from the German pharmaceutical giant. Biolojic Design will receive a low double-digit million euro upfront payment and is eligible for up to €346 million in discovery, development, regulatory and commercial milestones, in addition to royalty payments on net sales. Merck will be responsible for marketing the product, if all the clinical trials succeed.
This agreement follows agreements in a similar format with Teva and Nektar that were signed last year and could earn the company tens of millions of dollars - although the value of the agreement with Nektar was not published.
Biolojic CEO Dr. Yanay Ofran told the Biomed Israel 2024 Conference, "We develop new drugs for known targets, in a way that improves the chances of success of drug development. Using our technology, we can make sure that an antibody will always end up in the right place, we can force it to bind to target A and not target B, and we can make it change its approach if there is a change in the disease, by measuring the environment and reacting to it. The binding of our antibodies to the target is also better."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on June 4, 2024.
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