Merck KGaA bags another molecular glue deal for $16M upfront, this time with C4

In the lat­est de­vel­op­ment in the “high­ly dy­nam­ic” mol­e­c­u­lar glue space, Mer­ck KGaA has inked a dis­cov­ery agree­ment with C4 Ther­a­peu­tics for two pro­tein de­graders against can­cer tar­gets.

C4 will re­ceive $16 mil­lion up­front and is el­i­gi­ble for up to $740 mil­lion in mile­stones and tiered roy­al­ties on sales rang­ing from the mid-sin­gle to low-dou­ble dig­its, per a com­pa­ny re­lease.

The Wa­ter­town, MA-based biotech plans to use its TOR­PE­DO plat­form to de­sign two can­di­dates tar­get­ing undis­closed onco­genic pro­teins that C4 has pro­gressed with­in its own dis­cov­ery pipeline. The Ger­man phar­ma is then set to take the reins on po­ten­tial clin­i­cal de­vel­op­ment and com­mer­cial­iza­tion.

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