Ranbaxy Laboratories, Merck will sign a drug discovery and development agreement, reports CNBC-TV18. Both companies plan to develop anti-infective drug candidates. CNBC-TV18 had reported on Ranbaxy, Merck deal on May 9.
Ranbaxy may get USD 100 million as milestone payment from Merck.
The big mover in the past few minutes has been Ranbaxy, the deal has finally been done apparently with Merck. Vikas Dandekar of CNBC-TV18 gives a low down on the deal:
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.
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