Merck Serono signs five year partnership with Lead Discovery Center

Merck Serono, the biotech unit of Germany’s Merck KGaA (MRK: DE), has announced a five year strategic partnership with the Lead Discovery Center (LDC).

Merck Serono and LDC, a translational research organization, will enter into a broader drug discovery collaboration aiming to identify lead candidates to multiple drug targets. The company said the collaboration “integrates the expertise and resources of both organizations to expedite the discovery of promising lead structures.”

Merck said the deal expands a successful initial collaboration with LDC in oncology into a strategic partnership spanning across all of Merck Serono’s core research and development areas. The first project under the new agreement will be in immunology and emerged from an ongoing collaboration of LDC with the Max-Planck researcher and Nobel Laureate Robert Huber.