Billions on the line as Amgen and Generate Biomedicines link up

Biotech major Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN) and Generate Biomedicines have announced a research collaboration agreement to discover and create protein therapeutics for five clinical targets across several therapeutic areas and multiple modalities.

Privately-held Generate claims to be a new kind of therapeutics company existing at the intersection of machine learning, biological engineering and medicine.

"Generate Biomedicine's integrated in silico design and wet lab capabilities combined with Amgen’s strength in protein engineering can accelerate our drug discovery"Amgen will pay $50 million in upfront funding for the initial five programs with a potential transaction value of $1.9 billion plus future royalties, and will have the option to nominate up to five additional programs, at additional cost.