Ranbaxy may get $100m as milestone payment from Merck

Q: The deal we were talking about seems confirmed now. They are talking about a USD 100 million in terms of milestone payment. Do you think there might be a whole lot more down the line and does this indeed fall to their research arm?

A: Absolutely, in fact it is very difficult to have a measure of how much probably they will get because drug discovery research is highly risky and nobody can predict how much will come in. But anti-infective is a growth area and USD 100 million looks to be a conservative figure. To start with, Ranbaxy Lifescience will get at least two-three of such projects, one being a Glaxo project which they signed six years ago and this one is with Merck.