Merck KGaA has signed a drug discovery partnership with Valo Health, becoming the latest big pharma to enlist the services of the tech company to identify the next big therapeutic.
The strategic collaboration will see Merck offer Valo over a potential $3bn in upfront and milestone payments, as well as R&D funding and royalties from any products that come from the work. In return, the German drugmaker will use Valo’s AI human casual biology and discovery platforms to find new disease targets and create preclinical compounds.
Valo stated the link-up will focus on “advancing therapeutic discovery in Parkinson’s disease and related disorders”.
Valo’s human casual biology platform uses AI to scan more than 17 million de-identified patient records and biobank samples to pinpoint potential therapeutic targets. Within the scope of neurological disorders, the company’s tech has been able to identify distinct patient phenotypes across the disease spectrum.
Valo’s closed-loop chemistry platform then continues the discovery journey by developing small molecules that engage these disease targets.
Merck’s global neurology and immunology research unit head Amy Kao said: “Our research engine is focused on delivering meaningful medicines for patients with high unmet medical needs. Valo Health’s AI‑enabled platforms utilising human data will help sharpen target selection and streamline drug discovery, enabling us to advance the most promising candidates faster.”
Valo does have its own internal pipeline, but partnerships have recently become an important commercial avenue for the company. The company’s diabetic retinopathy candidate OPL-0401 failed a Phase II trial, leading to a shift in focus towards its cache of real-world data. Valo has not publicly disclosed the other assets in its pipeline.
What has been in the public realm are the big-dollar deals signed with big pharma companies looking to bring in the new generation of drugs to their pipelines. Novo has an ongoing partnership with Valo that has $4.6bn on the line if certain development milestones are met in cardiometabolic indications. Pfizer is also working with Valo via a ten-programme agreement with the latter’s founder, Flagship Pioneering.
Enlisting the services of companies with AI-powered platforms has become a common occurrence in the pharma industry in recent years. Analysis by GlobalData demonstrates that the speed and efficiency of AI can cut drug development costs and cycles.
Valo’s CEO Brian Alexander said the company is looking forward to using its platform to expand Merck’s pipeline of treatments for Parkinson’s and related disorders.
Alexander added: “Starting with human causal biology in vast amounts of real-world data allows us to unravel the complexity of heterogeneous diseases like Parkinson’s and start experimentation with human validated mechanisms, giving us greater confidence that a target will translate into a successful therapeutic candidate.”
