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news.Merck & Co. and Idera have formed a collaboration to develop and commercialize Idera's toll-like receptor agonists by incorporating them into Merck's vaccine programs for oncology, infectious diseases and Alzheimer's disease.
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Under the terms of the agreement, Merck will receive rights to a number of Idera's agonist compounds targeting Toll-like Receptor (TLR) 7, 8 and 9 for use in combination with Merck's therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines under development. Merck and Idera will engage in a two-year collaboration to generate novel agonists targeting TLR 7 and TLR 8.
“TLRs are critical mediators of the human immune response. We believe a chemistry-based approach may be an efficient way to harness the activity of TLRs to train the immune system to recognize antigens, thereby potentially enhancing the effect of vaccines,” said Stephen Friend, executive vice president of Advanced Technologies and Oncology at Merck.
Merck has agreed to pay $20 million to Idera and to purchase $10 million of its common stock at $5.50 per share. In addition, Merck will fund the research and devlopment collaboration. Idera is eligible to receive milestone payments of up to $165 million if vaccines are successfully developed in each of the three fields. Idera could receive additional milestones of up to $260 million. Idera will also receive royalties on products commercialized under the collaboration.