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Merck & Co Takes Up Astex/Taiho SHP2 Program

Indicates Growing Pharma Interest

 
• By Ian Haydock

Merck & Co joins ranks of big pharma firms pursuing the SHP2 area of oncology as it picks up global rights to a portfolio of inhibitors originating from two affiliates of Japan's Otsuka Pharmaceutical.

Cancer Research
• Source: Shutterstock

Otsuka Holdings Co., Ltd. group companies Taiho Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and Astex Pharmaceuticals Ltd. have exclusively licensed to Merck & Co., Inc. global rights to their joint small molecule drug discovery program targeting SHP2, a KRAS-related oncology target gaining increasing big pharma attention, particularly for combination use.

The US major (which operates as MSD outside North America) already held an option to the early-stage program as part of an existing oncology collaboration which the two firms

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