Mer­ck revs up deal­mak­ing en­gine ahead of #JPM22, ink­ing col­lab­o­ra­tions with AI pro­tein de­sign play­er Ab­sci

In the year-plus since Roger Perl­mut­ter left his post lead­ing Mer­ck’s R&D ef­forts, the Big Phar­ma’s new lead­er­ship has con­tin­ued to pur­sue an ag­gres­sive deal­mak­ing strat­e­gy. On Fri­day, Mer­ck en­list­ed a new part­ner as the spree shows no signs of slow­ing down.

Mer­ck signed a pair of col­lab­o­ra­tions with Ab­sci aim­ing to bol­ster its AI re­search ca­pa­bil­i­ties, the com­pa­nies an­nounced Fri­day. The first is a rel­a­tive­ly mod­est deal on Mer­ck’s end — there are no de­tails about the up­front or mile­stone pay­ments but the duo said it could lead to more.

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