Name
Merck & Co. is looking for opportunities in atherosclerosis, cardiovascular, diabetes and endocrinology diseases
Organization name
Merck & Co., Inc.
Profile
At Merck, we share your passion for developing breakthrough vaccines and medicines that advance human health. We are inspired by your discoveries and we want to work with you to bring your innovation from bench to bedside.
Favorable Licensing Candidates
We're interested in:
- Novel patented compounds
- Targets with proof of concept
- Molecules with a defined mechanism of action or testable hypothesis'
- Technologies with patent protection that provide a competitive advantage
Late-stage clinical compounds with proven therapeutic value (phase IIb or beyond) are of interest in any therapeutic area.
Lipids / Metabolic Syndrome
Areas of Interest:
- Lipid-lowering therapies
- Agents with effect on LDL / Apo B
- Agents with additional effect on glucose, triglycerides, blood pressure, body weight, and / or HDL
- Basic research collaborations on novel targets
- HDL-raising therapies
- Acute HDL therapy for high-risk patients (eg, HDL infusion)
- Oral compounds, with known mechanism of action, that increase HDL-C or Apo-A1 levels and have additional evidence to increase confidence that such mechanism will reduce cardiovascular risk
- Basic research collaborations on novel targets
Technology / Methods:
- Discovery
- Collaborations for identifying, validating, and developing novel lipid / metabolic and / or other emerging targets with pre-clinical or human genetic validation and high confidence for reducing CV risk
- Biomarkers
- Methods, biomarkers, or platforms to assess antiatherogenic properties of HDL or other lipoproteins
- Biomarkers of patient subtypes
- Acute methods to assess cholesterol transport in humans (especially reverse cholesterol transport), including imaging and kinetic models
Not Interested In:
- Fibrates or other PPAR-alpha agonists
Specialty Hypertension / Cardiovascular
Specialty hypertension includes hypertensive segments with high unmet medical need such as systolic HTN, resistant HTN and HTN associated with obesity, and diabetes HTN with associated heart failure; and pulmonary artery HTN
Areas of Interest:
- Diuretics
- Long-acting vasorelaxants
- Agents that inhibit aldosterone synthesis and / or action
- Agents that lower blood pressure and have pleiotropic benefits on end-organ protection (especially cardiac, renal, and vascular)
- Antihypertensive agents with additional benefits on other components of metabolic syndrome and other cardiovascular risk factors
- Agents for pulmonary hypertension
- Heart failure agents that affect structural cardiac remodeling and have antihypertensive effects
- Basic research collaborations on novel targets in above areas of interest
Technology / Methods:
- Discovery
- Animal models of hypertension and end-organ damage (cardiac, pulmonary vascular, renal) with strong evidence of translational value
- Biomarkers (clinical and preclinical)
- Technologies for measuring vascular dynamics (eg, flow, shear stress, vascular compliance) and intravascular pressure beyond tonometry
- Markers for renal sequelae of HTN (eg, renal perfusion and renal injury)
- Platform technologies that enable personalized medicine for HTN
Not Interested In:
- ACE inhibitors, ARBs, CCBs, beta-blockers, adrenergic agents
- Nutraceuticals
Thrombosis and Other Areas (Outside Lipids and Hypertension)
Areas of Interest:
Thrombosis (discovery onward):
- Oral direct thrombin inhibitor for the treatment of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation and venous thromboembolic disorders
- Novel anti-coagulants that offer potential for improved efficacy and / or reduced bleeding risk as compared to warfarin, DTIs, Factor Xa inhibitors
- Basic research collaborations on novel targets
Technology / Methods:
- Preclinical models, clinical models, and / or biomarkers that can be used to differentiate anticoagulant mechanisms based on efficacy and / or bleeding risk
- Preclinical models, clinical models, and / or biomarkers that can be used to differentiate antiplatelet mechanisms based on efficacy and / or bleeding risk
Not Interested In:
- Agents without clinical POC for:
- Acute treatments for MI
- Post-MI therapeutics for myocardial preservation or perfusion-reperfusion injury
- Vascular inflammation targets
- Treatment of restenosis
Diabetes
Areas of Interest
- Any treatments for glucose with risk reduction of co-morbidities (eg, dyslipidemia, hypertension)
- Novel or best-in-class protein / peptide therapeutics
- Insulin
- Novel “breakthrough” insulins (eg, glucosedependent, liver-targeted) to complement existing efforts
- Insulin delivered by alternate routes (eg, oral, buccal, transdermal, nasal) that also offers an improved clinical profile
- Best-in-class GLP-1 analogs
- Insulin
- Oral therapies: Best-in-class and novel mechanisms
- Non-PPAR insulin sensitizers
- Glucose-dependent insulin secretagogues (GDIS)
- Beta-cell protection or regeneration if also affects GDIS
- Ability to combine with metformin is a must-have
- Additive / synergistic in combination with sitagliptin
- Best-in-class SGLT inhibitor
- Microvascular complication treatments with human clinical efficacy data
- Agents that halt / reverse complications in preferably >1 target (diabetic nephropathy, neuropathy, retinopathy)
Not Interested in:
- Nutraceuticals or natural product mixtures
- Non–glucose-dependent insulin secretagogues for diabetes
- Cell-based insulin replacement for type 1 diabetes unless long-term clinical POC data exists
- Compounds with unknown molecular target unless clinical POC exists
Obesity
Areas of Interest:
- Completed Ph II data are required for obesity licensing opportunities
- Must meet registration criteria for obesity indication with better safety and tolerability vs current agents
- Best-in-class compounds and novel mechanisms for weight loss or both weight loss and prevention of weight gain
- Any effective mechanism, eg, those acting centrally or peripherally on appetite, satiety, or metabolic rate, and nutrient absorption inhibitors
- Peptide, protein, or oral small molecule
- Independent effects on comorbidities (blood pressure, glucose, lipids) desirable
- Mechanisms that are additive or synergistic as combination therapy
Osteoporosis
Areas of Interest:
- Osteoanabolic agents
- Novel mechanisms with known molecular target (prefer clinical POC data)
- Novel delivery for well-validated targets (eg, PTH) with clinical data to demonstrate a differentiated profile
Not Interested in:
- Nutraceuticals or natural product mixtures
- Growth hormone or secretagogues for osteoporosis
- ER alpha modulators for osteoporosis
- Classic antiresorptive agents, including bisphosphonates with improved formulations that allow less frequent dosing or better tolerability for osteoporosis
- Compounds with unknown molecular target unless clinical POC exists
Contraception and Fertility
Areas of Interest:
- Compounds with a differentiated product profile and with completed Phase IIB data for female contraception
- Compounds or Biologics with a differentiated product profile and with completed Phase IIB data for treatment of female infertility
Not Interested in:
- Basic research collaborations towards validation of novel targets for contraception or infertility treatment
- Male contraception
- Emergency contraception
- Progestagens for luteal support
- Obstetrics
Other Areas of Women's Health
Not Interested in (unless in Phase III or later):
- Compounds, biologics, medications, and / or treatments in the following areas are outside strategy unless in Phase III with a differentiated product profile
- Endometriosis
- Menopausal complaints
- Uterine fibroids
- Female sexual dysfunction
- Dysmenorrhea
We are most interested in novel compounds that have large market potential for unmet medical needs. An attractive compound would have selectivity, potency, a demonstrated mechanism of action, preliminary toxicology data, oral availability, and a good half-life for once-daily administration. We also look for strong intellectual property protection on the target and the molecule.
Sending a proposal:
When contacting us about your discovery, we ask that you:
- Provide a clear, concise, non-confidential data package for review
- Highlight the advantages of your discovery
- Provide perspective on its value within the competitive landscape
Keep in mind that our review process is centralized and includes review by the appropriate experts from basic biology, chemistry, preclinical, clinical, marketing and patent.
We look forward to hearing about your discovery. Together, we can transform cutting-edge science into medicines that address unmet medical needs.
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