Mer­ck hands Sutro $60M to start on im­munomod­u­la­to­ry drug dis­cov­ery; Eli Lil­ly spin­ning out an­i­mal health group

→ Drugs that can tune the hu­man im­mune sys­tem are all the rage these days, es­pe­cial­ly at Big Phar­ma R&D groups like Mer­ck’s. And to­day the phar­ma gi­ant is spot­light­ing a deal to de­vel­op more of these drugs with the help of Sutro Bio­Phar­ma in South San Fran­cis­co. 

Mer­ck is pay­ing Sutro $60 mil­lion up­front to get start­ed on the dis­cov­ery deal, look­ing for im­munomod­u­la­to­ry drugs that can work on can­cer or au­toim­mune dis­eases — ei­ther tap­ping the gas or the brakes on an im­mune re­sponse. The deal in­cludes a hefty $1.6 bil­lion in mile­stones to keep things go­ing.

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