Oncology collaboration: Proteros & MSD to find epigenetic target

Proteros has entered into a second research agreement with Merck (known as MSD outside the US and Canada), aimed at developing small molecule compounds against an additional epigenetic target for the potential treatment of various cancers.

Under the terms of the agreement, Proteros receives an upfront payment and research funding and will be eligible to receive development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments up to $167 million plus tiered royalties. Additional details of the collaboration were not disclosed.

Reversing disease process

Epigenetics addresses a novel paradigm in the organisation of genetic information and covers a broad class of enzymes and hundreds of potential drug targets.

Epigenetic changes – unlike genetic alterations – provide the potential to reverse disease processes.

Reversing those changes with epigenetic drugs is a fundamentally new opportunity in drug discovery. Proteros’ proprietary nucleosomal epigenetic assay technologies (NEAT) and the structure guided discovery platform allow the opening of gateways to address epigenetic mechanisms for new medicines.