Merck Frosst Licenses BTG Clot Imaging Agent

Bio-Technology General of Israel has announced that Merck Frosst Canada, a subsidiary of Merck & Co, has licensed worldwide rights to a genetically-engineered peptide, the fibrin-binding domain of fibronectin, which may be of use in clot imaging. The license agreement is between Merck Frosst and Bio-Cardia, a newly-formed company which has licensed certain cardiovascular and other products from BTG and for which BTG is performing R&D services.

Under the new agreement with Bio-Cardia and Merck Frosst, BTG will manufacture and supply the peptide and Merck Frosst will develop, manufacture and commercialize a thrombus-imaging agent derived from the peptide. Merck Frosst will pay royalties on sales of the agent to Bio-Cardia or BTG, which has rights to reacquire the products licensed to Bio-Cardia.

The peptide developed by BTG binds to fibrin, a principal component of thrombi. When linked to a radioactive label using a proprietary process developed by Merck Frosst, it should enable the imaging and detection of clots using nuclear imaging. The companies hope that imaging of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism with the new peptide will have advantages over current modalities because of its high affinity and specificity, and the fact that it is non-immunogenic since it is a recombinant human protein.