Ra Pharma eligible to get $200 million under accord with Merck & Co

Closely-held, USA-based Ra Pharmaceuticals has entered into a collaboration with US pharma giant Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK) focused on the development of Cyclomimetics, a new class of compounds that have the diversity and specificity of antibodies while retaining the attributes of small molecules.

Under the terms of the deal, Ra Pharmaceuticals is eligible to receive up to $200 million in payments, including up-front and research funding, as well as upon the achievement of discovery, development, regulatory and commercialization milestones for multiple targets. Ra Pharmaceuticals will use its proprietary Extreme Diversity platform to develop Cyclomimetic candidates for protein targets in multiple therapeutic areas.

“Cyclomimetics have novel properties that enable the targeting of protein-protein interactions, a property sought after for a wide range of disease indications,” said Doug Treco, co-founder, president and chief executive of Ra Pharmaceuticals, noting that “the collaboration with Merck highlights the broad potential of our Extreme Diversity platform and provides us with the resources to strengthen and advance our core technology.”