By Saabira Chaudhuri
Merck & Co. (MRK) has inked a deal with Luminex Corp. (LMNX)
to develop a device that could help screen patients for recruitment
into a clinical development program for its lead investigational
candidate for Alzheimer's disease.
Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
The study is focused on MK-8931, a novel oral beta amyloid
precursor protein site cleaving enzyme inhibitor. Merck noted the
accumulation of beta amyloid in the brain is a key pathological
characteristic related to Alzheimer's. It said recent clinical
evidence supports the idea that measuring certain investigational
biomarkers may be useful in identifying patients at greater risk of
developing the disease.
Currently, Alzheimer's is diagnosed by clinical examination. The
disease progressively destroys neurons in the brain, leading to a
deterioration of cognitive function.
"Evaluation of biomarkers that may provide an indicator of
disease onset and enable earlier diagnosis is an important goal
toward facilitating early intervention and potentially improving
the treatment of Alzheimer's disease," said Darryle D. Schoepp,
head of neuroscience and ophthalmology at Merck Research
Laboratories.
Under the terms of the collaboration and license agreement,
Luminex will be responsible for development, regulatory submission
and commercialization of the companion diagnostic device, which
will use its technology to measure concentrations of two candidate
biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid samples from patients with mild
cognitive impairment.
The candidate device will be evaluated as a means to identify
subjects with mild cognitive impairment who have a higher risk of
developing Alzheimer's to support patient selection for Merck's
program.
The agreement comes as Merck's research and development engine
is under pressure to produce successful new products as it faces
sales erosion from patent expirations for top-selling drugs, most
recently for allergy and asthma treatment Singulair. The company
has been cutting costs as part of an effort to soften the hit from
increased generic competition while also working to bring new
products to market.
Merck and other big pharmaceutical companies have tried to
expand into biotechnology drugs, which are often derived from
proteins rather than traditional, chemical-based pills. Aside from
bringing new approaches to attacking disease, biotechnology drugs
can also command higher prices and are less directly exposed to
generic competition than traditional pills.
Earlier this month, Merck named former Amgen Inc. (AMGN)
executive Roger M. Perlmutter to lead its drug R&D arm,
replacing Peter S. Kim, who it said is retiring.
Merck's shares edged down by a penny to $44.60 in recent
premarket trading. The stock has risen 17% in the past 12 months.
Meanwhile, Luminex's shares were inactive from a Tuesday close of
$16.78. Its stock has dropped 26% in the past 12 months.
--Peter Loftus contributed to this article.
Write to Saabira Chaudhuri at saabira.chaudhuri@dowjones.com
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