Amphista Therapeutics announced a strategic collaboration with Merck Healthcare, a division of Merck. Under the terms of the agreement, Merck and Amphista will work collaboratively to discover and develop small molecule protein degraders for an initial three targets in oncology and immunology indications. Amphista will receive an upfront payment, R&D funding and success-based milestone payments of up to €893.5 million ($1.0 billion) as well as royalties in the mid-single digit range.

Completion of the transaction is subject to the parties obtaining any necessary regulatory clearances or approvals. TPD therapies are designed to use physiological mechanisms to remove pathogenic protein from the body, offering the potential to access many disease targets previously considered undruggable. Amphista's technology is specifically designed to develop next generation TPD therapeutics based on mechanistic insights and novel chemistry approaches that enable the company to develop novel protein degrading therapeutics with superior levels of efficacy and broad therapeutic applicability.