As per the agreement, Merck will give development license for its clinical-stage compounds Pruvanserin and Sarizotan to Newron and will hold buy back options for each of the compounds upon completion of proof of concept trials.
Newron will have a co-development option.
However, Newron is expected to investigate the potential of these compounds in additional preclinical experiments prior to initiating proof of concept studies in central nervous systems (CNS) diseases.
Merck Serono Global Research and Development executive vice president Bernhard Kirschbaum said they believe that this expanded collaboration will leverage Newron’s expertise in the early-stage development of compounds targeting CNS indications.