Merck, Galapagos ink $233M obesity deal

It looks like Merck is making good on its promise to hunt for deals in 2009. It announced today that its signed a diabetes and obesity drug deal with Galapagos worth up to $233 million. Galapagos will get €1.5 million up front and potential milestone payments totaling €170 million. The company will discover small molecules drug candidates using its SilenceSelect target discovery platform, and will also manage preclinical development of any molecules selected. Merck has rights to any programs discovered as part of the collaboration, but Galapagos may continue to develop any targets Merck does not choose to pursue.

"Galapagos has a proven track record of delivering on its alliance programs, making us attractive to potential pharma partners seeking to fill their pipelines with medicines based on novel modes of action. Galapagos has been successful through careful management of its R&D programs; this early stage alliance with Merck fits nicely into our alliance infrastructure as other programs advance into later stages," said Onno van de Stolpe, Galapagos' CEO.

Merck announced in early October that it was dumping its late-stage obesity drug taranabant after determining that the efficacy of the drug is tied to high doses, which in turn triggered side effects.

- here's the joint release

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