(AOF) – Merck and Orna Therapeutics, a biotechnology company active in the field of circular RNA (oRNA) therapies, today announced a collaboration agreement to discover, develop and commercialize several programs, including vaccines and therapies in the fields of infectious diseases and oncology. The cooperation agreement concluded in the field of RNA technologies provides for an initial investment of 250 million dollars and subsequent conditional payments likely to reach 3.5 billion.
Under the terms of the agreement, Merck will make an upfront payment of $150 million to Orna, which will be recognized by Merck in the third quarter of 2022 and included in its non-GAAP results.
In addition, Orna may receive up to $3.5 billion to fund the development, regulatory and sales stages associated with advancing the various vaccine and therapeutic programs, as well as royalties on any approved product derived from the collaboration.
Orna will retain the rights to its oRNA-LNP technology platform and continue to help advance other wholly owned programs in areas such as oncology and genetic diseases. Merck will also invest $100 million in equity in Orna’s recently completed Series B funding round.
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An inevitable race for new blockbusters
The patent for Merck’s star product, the cancer drug Keytruda, which accounts for more than 35% of its sales, expires in 2028. Despite the loss, since 2019, of the patents for its three star products (Avastin, Herceptine, Rituxan) Roche was able to renew its portfolio by bringing new molecules to market. However, the discovery and launch of new drugs are increasingly expensive. AstraZeneca spends about $6 billion a year on R&D in a pharmaceutical industry where the life of a patent only lasts ten to fifteen years. This leads laboratories to withdraw from certain activities. Thus J&J, Pfizer, GSK and, no doubt, Novartis soon prefer to refocus on specialty drugs and abandon any ancillary activity.