Right on the heels of a PhI­II fail­ure, Mer­ck neu­ro­science dou­bles down with a new drug tar­get­ing tau

Mer­ck isn’t let­ting its first big Phase III fail­ure in Alzheimer’s get in the way of its am­bi­tions in the field. The phar­ma gi­ant just grabbed world­wide rights to a pre­clin­i­cal tau-tar­get­ed an­ti­body, lin­ing up a par­al­lel shot at a prime sus­pect in the de­vel­op­ment of the mem­o­ry-wast­ing ail­ment.

Mer­ck $MRK struck its deal with Japan’s Tei­jin Phar­ma, in­clud­ing an up­front and mile­stones which it didn’t dis­close (and rarely does). Now its neu­ro­science R&D group will take over de­vel­op­ment, re­serv­ing a roy­al­ty split if this one ever makes it to the mar­ket.

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