Mer­ck KGaA bets big on DNA dam­age up­start, push­ing $30M up­front and hefty in­cen­tives for a Lyn­parza pi­o­neer

The DNA dam­age spe­cial­ists over at Ar­tios Phar­ma have re­mained large­ly qui­et in the 2 1/2 years since their last fundraise, but what­ev­er they’ve been up to, it’s im­pressed Mer­ck KGaA.

The Big Phar­ma an­nounced Thurs­day that they had inked a three-year-deal with Ar­tios to dis­cov­er and de­vel­op small mol­e­cule can­cer drugs that tar­get DNA re­pair en­zymes. The Ger­man Mer­ck will pay Ar­tios $30 mil­lion up­front, with an­oth­er $865 mil­lion in mile­stone avail­able per tar­get.

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