Astex Pharmaceuticals Inc. is getting $35 million up front and up to $500 million per program as it extends its drug discovery collaboration with Merck & Co. Inc. to include small-molecule activators of the p53 tumor suppressor protein. The number of programs was not disclosed, but they will target forms of p53 that have lost their function as a result of cancer-induced mutations in the TP53 gene. The aim will be to override the mutation and restore the ability of the wild-type protein to bind DNA and perform its functions as a transcription factor.
LONDON – Merck & Co. Inc. has become the latest pharma company to in-license a SHP2 small-molecule program, as the rush to find companion pieces for KRAS oncogene inhibitors heats up.
LONDON – Merck & Co. Inc. has become the latest pharma company to in-license a SHP2 small-molecule program, as the rush to find companion pieces for KRAS oncogene inhibitors heats up.
In a deal with just $50 million up front but the potential to reach $2.5 billion, Tokyo’s Taiho Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and Astex Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, U.K., are joining Merck & Co. Inc. in an exclusive worldwide research collaboration and license agreement to develop small-molecule inhibitors against several cancer targets, including the KRAS oncogene.
