Tech Transfer Roundup: Inside Merck’s Approach To Academic Partnering

With later-stage in-licensing assets becoming harder to find, Merck is seeking to work more often and in varied ways with academic and institutional researchers to advance its pipeline. Recent tech transfer deals include Cancer Research UK’s transactions with ProNAi and Artios.

Merck & Co. Inc.’s Kim Folander believes collaboration between big pharma and academic or institutional researchers may take on an increasingly important role in pipeline expansion as the competition for later-stage in-licensing assets grows stronger.

“From the larger industry perspective, it’s harder and harder to find late-stage therapeutics of any kind,” Folander, Merck’s executive director...

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