Nuevolution's Big Win: Whitehouse Station Inks Second Collaboration In "Scandanavian Super-Speedy, Super-Scaled" Small Molecule Discovery Tech

I'll have more local color and analytical detail later today, but Merck signed what may well turn our to be a material research collaboration, overnight -- if it reads on/in oncology molecule/target discovery. The dollars are presumably tiny, by Merck standards -- but this little Scandanavian go go biotech shop now has deals with practically every one of the top seven pharma giants on the planet.

Yes, this Scandanavian tech is that promising. Nuevolution is a privately-held, venture backed sharp operator. [Honestly, and selfishly, I just wish it had ADRs, or any form of equity, trading here in the United States -- I'd be all over that, like white on rice.] Here's a bit from the presser -- but I will be back with more -- including the background on Merck's first investment here -- way back in June of 2008 (see that PDF, as background).

. . . .Nueveolution. . . announced that it has entered an exclusive license agreement with a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, for small molecule compounds targeting an undisclosed intracellular target for use as leads in Merck’s drug discovery and development.

Under terms of the agreement, Merck will gain exclusive rights for the further development and commercialization of the compounds. This is the second agreement between Nuevolution and Merck. Nuevolution will receive an undisclosed upfront payment and milestone payments for certain preclinical, clinical and agreed upon commercial milestones. In addition, Nuevolution is eligible to receive royalties on the commercial sales of approved products. Further financial details were not disclosed.

With this agreement, Nuevolution delivers on its new strategy to transform from a technology platform biotech company to a lead compound development company, providing novel products to improve future health treatments for patients. . . .

I promise you -- this is a company to watch -- and if you can get to the venture backers -- grab a stake. Drug candidates -- very promising ones -- are likely to be identified by the near-thousands, in only a few days, using this tech. . . Whoosh. [Trivial Sidecar Dept.: I'll also wager that no one else noticed that the company's logo is set in a non-italicized version of Baxter's proprietary typeface, right. Look closely. Baxter's ital version is trademarked. Hmmmm. . . .]