Merck & Co explores collaboration with China's BGI

US drugs giant Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK), at a conference in Shenzhen, China, signed a statement of intent to initiate and develop a working relationship with China’s BGI (formerly the Beijing Genomics Institute). Both parties intend to build infrastructure to support collaboration in areas such as biomarkers, target validation and drug de-risking and development.

"This statement of intent is an initial step designed to bring together Merck's expertise in pharmaceutical development with the powerful sequencing and bioinformatics capabilities of BGI," said Peter Kim, president of Merck Research Laboratories. The companies will explore areas of mutual interest in healthcare research and discovery by leveraging genomic information. The agreement establishes desired principles of cooperation that Merck and BGI could use to develop separate master agreements and projects. This includes setting up of mutual offices in proximity to their respective facilities in the U.S. and China to enable closer collaboration.

However, the journal Bio-IT World claims this innocuous wording greatly understates the depth of the collaboration, which it calls “substantive, wide-ranging and long-term.” Bio-IT World says the agreement is “the most significant partnership announced so far between China’s BGI and a major pharmaceutical company.” It notes that BGI is working diligently to attract customers to its new next-generation sequencing facility in Hong Kong and its bioinformatics center in Shenzhen. The magazine says BGI offers “unparalleled” services.